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STATUE OF ANDREAS HOFER ON BERG ISEL 

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Che fair Land Cyrol 



BY 



W. ©♦ flDcCracftan 

Author of " Romance and Teutonic Switzerland," 
"The Rise of the Swiss Republic," etc. 



ILLUSTRATED 




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Copyright, igoj 
By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 
All rights reserved 



Published April, 1905 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds 6- Co. 

Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



THIS 

BOOK IS DEDICATED 

TO MY DEAR BROTHER 

ftrfj. 3tojjn % flacCracfeatt 

A LOVER OF THE TYROL 
AND ITS PEOPLE 



Some of the material contained in this book 
has already appeared in various periodicals : 
" Frescoes of Run ke I stein " in Harper s Monthly 
Magazine ; " The Sette Comuni" in The Bul- 
letin of the American Geographical Society ; 
" Andreas Hofer " in the New England 
Magazine ; and " Toy Town and Toy Land" 
and " Trent " in The Churchman. 

I take this opportunity of thanking the editors 
of the foregoing publications for permission to 
reprint. 

My thanks are also due to the Curator of 
the Ferdinandeum at Innsbruck for kindly and 
courteous assistance and to Miss Charlotte H. 
Coursen, of New Tork, for the use of her Col- 
lection of Tyroliana. 

The Author. 



FOREWORD 

In writing about a land and people the first 
thing needful is to bring appreciation and 
affection to the task. It is well to be able to 
discriminate in a kindly manner between the 
transitory idiosyncrasies of men and things 
and their enduring qualities; it is admirable 
to set aside the grotesque and the fantastical 
in behalf of the good, the true, and the beauti- 
ful ; it is wise to be always just in estimating 
motives and acts; but it is more important 
still to admire and to write from the heart 
rather than from the head only. 

No one can travel and tour in the Tyrol, see 
it6 glorious scenery, enjoy the hospitality of its 
inns, receive the pleasant deference, and hear 
the warm-hearted sentiments of its inhabitants, 
without learning to love both land and people. 

It is the province of this book to praise, to 
repay in a measure the friendly reception 
which was everywhere accorded the writer, 
to wish good speed and long life to all the 



Foreword 

dwellers in that greatly blessed and beautiful 
country, as well as to help the foreign way- 
farer to a true understanding and full enjoy- 
ment of that happy land Tyrol. 

It is not the purpose of the writer to at- 
tempt any profound analysis of things Tyro- 
lese, but merely to set down here some of the 
characteristics which impress the visitor upon 
crossing the frontier. A change is apparent 
in men and manners, in habits and customs, in 
the speech, the dress, and the very carriage of 
the people. The scenery may not differ 
greatly from that of the rest of the Alps, 
the mountains, the torrents, and the forests 
may resemble each other, the very houses may 
look like those of Switzerland, Bavaria, and 
other highland districts, still at the frontier 
of the Tyrol a subtile change takes place in 
the general mental atmosphere, and this 
mental change translates itself naturally into 
visible differences and outward acts. 

In the Tyrol, men, women, and children 
display a great fondness for greens of all 
shades, from yellow to grass and brown- 
greens. Especially is green the favourite 
colour for hats, but in many villages also for 
braids, embroideries, and other ornaments. 
While the men of Meran wear broad green 

vi 



Foreword 

suspenders, at Lienz even green woollen trou- 
sers may be seen. 

The moment you enter the country, you will 
also notice feathers on the hats, — generally 
the short, curly ones of the blackcock, or 
straight, defiant, eagle's quills, but often 
ordinary, every-day feathers, dropped by the 
barn-yard fowl. Strolling singers from the 
Zillerthal or the Salzkammergut usually dis- 
play drooping white feathers, that make a 
wide sickle sweep at the back of the head. 

The ornament known as the Gamsbart, or 
beard of the chamois, is not strictly a beard 
at all. In winter, namely, the hair of the 
chamois grows long and thick over the spine; 
this is cut off by the hunters, bunched together 
and worn at the back of the hat, side by side 
with the feather. The taller the tuft, the 
prouder the hunter. 

The Rucksack is another distinctive posses- 
sion of the Tyrolese, and their neighbours in 
the Eastern Alps. It is a simple loose sack 
of canvas, which hangs from the shoulders 
by straps, and settles in the small of the back 
in such a manner as to distribute the weight 
to the best possible advantage. Its colour, of 
course, is green. 

The Tyrolese commonly harness one horse 
vii 



Foreword 

which present novel features. After the pay- 
waiter, in the family of waiters, come the 
Speisentrager, or carriers of the viands. Then 
comes a curious little specimen of humanity 
called facetiously the Piccolo, a boy in ap- 
prenticeship, between eight and fourteen 
years old. He wears a dress suit like his 
superiors, and carries the less weighty orders. 

This elaborate order will not be found in 
the country inns, nor in the higher placed 
summer resorts, but a warm-hearted welcome, 
and the kindliest of attentions await the way- 
farer and sojourner at every point in the 
country. Much old-fashioned hospitality and 
many pleasant old world ways attract the 
tourist and call forth responsive feelings of 
gratitude toward the Tyrolese. This friendly 
attitude on the part of the people constitutes 
a truly valuable possession, and by its results 
adds much to their popularity and general 
welfare. 

The tourist can do much to make travel 
agreeable and profitable by meeting the Tyro- 
lese at least half-way in their pleasant manners 
and their simple overtures toward friendship. 
Nothing but mutual benefit can come from a 
trip in the Tyrol, undertaken under such 
circumstances, and lasting good should surely 

x 



Foreword 

result from the inspiration which the moun- 
tains shed broadcast over the traveller's stay 
in the Tyrol. 

A breath of exalting power passes from 
range to range. Exquisite colours continue a 
constant interplay upon the mountain flanks, 
from the sombre bases to the topmost peaks 
of white. The torrents flow swift and gray 
from the glaciers into the lower valleys, 
where, purified by their headlong struggle, 
they gleam clear and clean under the sun. It 
is they which feed the transparent lakes of 
green and blue that fill the pockets of the 
Alps, and make up their gems and jewelry. 

Within the sweet-scented forests of the 
lower slopes, the hares, squirrels, and some 
lesser game birds seek shelter and protection. 
On the timber line the splendid blackcock 
flies, while beyond the utmost trees, on green 
oases, watered by the melting of snow, the 
chamois graze on the watch, and the marmot 
colonies dig their holes. Up there the 
stretches of grass are brilliant with clusters 
of vivid blue gentians, the slopes rejoice in 
the friendly red of the alpine roses, massed 
against green hillsides in ordered rows, or 
bordering the sharp edges of the crags like 
decorative hedges. On bare summits, and 

xi 



Foreword 

beside the abrupt precipices, the edelweiss, 
hiding from the curiosity seeker, imitates the 
limestone and the granite with its inconspicu- 
ous gray and buff. 

Between the timber line and the perpetual 
snow line lie the thrice-blessed summer pas- 
tures, carpeted for many thousand cattle. 
The summer pasture, known in the Eastern 
Alps as the aim, and in Switzerland as the 
alp, is a world apart, with occupations, man- 
ners and customs, joys and sorrows, songs and 
sayings, and men and women of its own. 

Perchance, after the sights of the lower 
valleys have been visited and praised, the call 
to mount higher will come, and other sights 
and sounds will please and fill out the memory 
of your trip in the Tyrol with the tinkling of 
bells, the smile of flowery slopes, and the 
peace and serenity of this upper world of the 
earth. 

One of the many charms of the Alps con- 
sists in their intimate appeal to the affections. 
With all their grandeur and immensity, in 
spite of their perils and difficulties, the Alps 
invite a closer and kindlier memory by reason 
of the presence of man and the signs of man's 
activity throughout their length and breadth. 
No recess seems too secluded or remote, no 

xii 



Foreword 

slope too steep, no corner too abrupt, and no 
fleck of grass too tiny to escape the mountain 
craft of the alpine dwellers. Even the per- 
petual snow can no longer exclude the rail- 
road, the shelter hut and the observatory. 

Casual visitors must be impressed with this 
happy characteristic, and for the student and 
lover of the Alps it forms a striking feature 
to be long remembered. 

The valleys are cultivated with utmost 
minuteness, and in small patches, so that their 
variegated crops present an aspect of singular 
picturesqueness. 

The forests are tended with special care, 
because they form a screen against the high 
lying masses of snow in winter, and afford a 
partial shelter against the avalanches. 

The rivers, torrents, and brooks are as com- 
pletely as possible controlled with stone 
sluiceways, breakwaters, and guards. 

The summer pastures, offering grazing- 
ground for the cattle during fully half the 
year, are preserved and nourished almost as 
industriously as the hay-fields in the lower val- 
leys. On many an aim the loose stones which 
have splintered away and rolled down from 
above are gathered into heaps, and thus new 



Xlll 



Foreword 

ground won for the sprouting grass and the 
sweet flowers. 

Elsewhere the rivulets and brooks from the 
melting snow are guided over the slopes in 
miniature canals, and made to irrigate the 
fields. 

Great industry and tireless activity is appar- 
ent in the Alps, and the traveller cannot fail 
to admire the results in enhanced productions 
and beauty. 

What shall be said of the alpine dwellings? 
What adequate return can be made by the 
traveller for the sight of cozy cottages, pictur- 
esque and high-perched against the sombre 
scenery of rocks and ravines? Who can 
measure the gratitude due to the pioneers who 
penetrated into the primeval forests in the 
centuries long passed, cut their clearings for 
the hungry cattle and the rude crops, over- 
came the wild beasts in their lairs and the 
eagles in their eyries, laid out the first zig- 
zags up the frowning slopes and over the 
connecting saddles and mountain passes, and 
built the primitive timbered huts, which have 
formed the basis of alpine architecture pretty 
much over the whole range from Styria to 
Savoy. 

The general tendency in the Alps is to build 
xiv 



Foreword 

in wood where the forests are abundant and 
best preserved. The wooden house is also 
found principally in the Teutonic portions 
of the Alps, the stone house generally betray- 
ing the nearness of Romance influences. 

In the Tyrol the house built entirely of 
wood is not as often seen as, for instance, in the 
Bernese Oberland in Switzerland, at least 
the substructure and the first story of the 
Tyrolese house being generally built of stone 
and mortar, and mural paintings of historical 
and ethical interest abound throughout the 
Crown Land. 

In Italian-speaking Tyrol, wooden houses 
disappear almost entirely except in such dis- 
tricts as that of Auronzo, where noble forests 
and wood in plenty lie close at hand for build- 
ing purposes. But the Tyrol surpasses the rest 
of the Alps in its array of castles, which smile 
or frown from crag and plateau in brilliant 
and bewildering array. 

Thus, even to the robber knights of old, 
some thanks are due from tourist and traveller 
for their good taste in selecting apt and noble 
sites for their dwellings. 

Then let the journey in the land Tyrol be 
punctuated with words and works of genuine 
appreciation for the good, the true, and the 

xv 



Foreword 

beautiful, so greatly in evidence on peak and 
plain. May good-will pervade, and fraternal 
fellow-feeling mark the traveller's days, so 
that in the retrospect the memories evoked 
may radiate health and happiness and a 
pardonable desire to return and revisit. 



xvi 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER p AGB 

I. Innsbruck — An Alpine Capital 3 

II. The Hofkirche — Tyrol's Westminster 

Abbey 15 

III. Maximilian — The Last of the Knights 

(1459- 1519) 21 

IV. Round about Innsbruck .... 32 
V. Philippine Welser (1527- 1580) . . 39 

VI. The Vorarlberg Approach ... 45 

VII. Down the Valley of the Inn . . 53 

VIII. Kitzbuhel — Life on the Alm . . . 68 

IX. The Achensee 76 

X. The Zillerthal 80 

XI. Over the Brenner Pass .... 89 

XII. The Pusterthal 97 

XIII. Franz von Defregger : Painter of the 

People 113 

XIV. Brixen 128 

XV. The Groden Valley 134 

XVI. Two Minnesingers 143 

XVII. The Basin of Bozen 157 

XVIII. The Rosengarten — A Garden of Roses 167 

XIX. The Frescoes of Runkelstein . .177 

XX. Meran, the Ancient Capital of Tyrol 186 

XXI. Andreas Hofer (1767- 1809) . . . 197 

XXII. The Vintsgau . . . . .217 

xvii 



Contents 



CHAPTER 

XXIII. 
XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 
XXX. 



XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 



PAGE 

Above the Snow Line .... 223 
The Ortler : The Highest Mountain 

in the Tyrol 227 

Trent 239 

Dante in the Trentino .... 247 

Valsugana 256 

The Sette Comuni : A Teutonic Sur- 
vival on Italian Soil . . . 264 

The Dolomites 278 

A String of Pearls : Primolano, Pri- 
miero, Paneveggio, Predazzo, and 

Perra 284 

Cortina Di Ampezzo .... 296 

From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore . 301 

To Corvara 308 



xvill 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGB 

Statue of Andreas Hofer on Berg Isel (See 

page S3) Frontispiece 

Innsbruck 4 

Innsbruck : Arch of Maria Theresa — House 

of the Golden Roof 6 

Statue of King Arthur of England in Inns- 
bruck 16 

Statue of Theodoric in Innsbruck . . .18 
Marble Tablet on Tomb of Maximilian in Inns- 
bruck 26 

Castle Ambras 37 

Landeck 5° 

mtjnzerthurm in hall 56 

Man of Kufstein 67 

Women of the Zillerthal and Innthal . . 84 

Sterzing 91 

mlttewald and pflersch on the brenner route 93 

Castle Bruneck 101 

The Zither -player (From painting by Franz von 

Defregger) 120 

Castle Trostburg 134 

Klausen 144 

Statue of Walther von der Vogelweide in 

Bozen 162 

The Rosengarten 167 

Castle Karneid 174 

xix 



Tfje Fair 
Land Tyrol 

CHAPTER I 

INNSBRUCK — AN ALPINE CAPITAL 

Innsbruck is preeminently the alpine 
capital of Europe. The mountains seem to 
block the ends of its streets. The houses look 
as though they ran right up against a lofty 
range, which is white most of the year and 
only turns gray for the summer months. 

Let every place receive its due. Innsbruck 
lies i, 880 feet above the level of the sea, higher 
than Salzburg, higher than Zurich, Luzern, 
and Bern, higher even than Interlaken. 
Truly, Innsbruck is under the very shadow 
of the mountains, closely overtopped. At the 
same time the plain of the river Inn widens 
here to its greatest extent, allowing the eye to 

3 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

range southward over Berg Isel and the 
charming foot-hills of the Mittelgebirge 
sown with white villages, church steeples, 
cultivated fields and wooded groves. These 
foot-hills rise like terraces toward the higher 
mountains of the Patscher Kofel and the 
pyramidal Waldrast Spitze, or Series Spitze. 
East and west the valley of the Inn lies flat 
and streaked with long strips of real American 
corn, while the stream itself glitters under 
the sun, coiling its way between narrowing 
ranges into remote mauve and blue mono- 
tones, where stands the Kaisergebirge and 
Kufstein lies. 

Innsbruck is a full-fledged city, containing, 
with its suburbs, more than fifty thousand 
inhabitants. It has its rows of stores, its 
churches, theatres, museums, monuments, 
cafes, and its special industries. It has an 
imperial palace, military barracks, a univer- 
sity, schools, and even a botanical garden; 
but when you look up from the Maria There- 
sienstrasse, you think you must be in some 
village summer resort. While the city basks 
warm in the lap of civilization, the cool 
clouds drift over the savage scene above. In 
this contrast lies the chief charm of Innsbruck. 
While you enjoy the art treasures in the Hof- 

4 



Innsbruck 

kirche and the Museum Ferdinandeum, while 
you dine at the restaurant, or hear good music 
of an evening in the concert halls, while every- 
thing down below seems to be cozy and com- 
fortable in a warm-hearted Tyrolese world, 
up there the Frau Hitt, the Hafelekar, the 
Rumer Spitze, or whatever those fantastic 
peaks may be called, turn a cold shoulder 
upon you, and sometimes even in the height of 
summer suddenly appear white, Arctic, and 
remote. 

Innsbruck {The Bridge-over-the-Inn) is 
well placed to catch the tourist travel, being 
at the intersection of an international traffic 
that passes from Paris to Vienna, and from 
Berlin to Rome, over the Arlberg and Bren- 
ner routes. 

In the height of the season the place makes 
a distinctly gay impression. Travellers come 
from pretty much everywhere, but the great- 
est contingents flock in from near-by Germany, 
and from other provinces of Austria itself. 
These Teutonic contingents enliven the streets 
with their cheery enthusiasm. Mountaineers 
in costume range the city, doing a little sight- 
seeing; peasant women return from market 
with baskets on their arms, wearing black 
felt sailor hats, heavily embroidered in gold 

5 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

under the brim, and flying two long ribbons 
at the back. Porters in brilliant red and green 
caps wait, not too impatiently, at the street 
corners; cabs, pulled by one horse, though 
made for two, stand by the curb, and officers 
in uniform clink their swords on the pave- 
ments. There is everywhere a great deal of 
green, and a great many feathers point in a 
great many different directions, to show that 
we are really in the Tyrol at last. 

Nobody can be more than a few hours in 
Innsbruck without passing through the Maria 
Theresienstrasse; if for no other reason, be- 
cause the K. K. Post Office is there with its 
Poste Restante. At one end of the street rises 
a triumphal arch, erected by the citizens in 
1765, in commemoration of the visit of Em- 
peror Francis I. and Maria Theresa to the 
city on the occasion of the marriage of Arch- 
duke Leopold to the Infanta Maria Ludovica. 
As the wedding festivities were suddenly 
stopped by the death of Emperor Francis I., 
only the southern side of the arch displays 
symbols of joy, the northern being decorated 
with those of sorrow. 

Farther down, in the middle of the busy 
street, stands the Annasaule. It is a shaft 
rising from an ornate pedestal, and crowned 

6 



Innsbruck 

by a figure. The sculpture is unmistakably 
Italian, and so we are not surprised that a 
certain Benedetti from Castione near Trent 
was its maker. This monument celebrates 
the expulsion of the Bavarians and French 
from Tyrolese soil on St. Anne's day (July 
26, 1703) during the War of the Spanish Suc- 
cession. It was unveiled on another St. 
Anne's day, in 1706. 

Some noteworthy houses flank the Maria 
Theresienstrasse. No. 18, for instance, the 
former Oesterreichischer Hof, has a court 
fagade, frescoed by Ferdinand Wagner; 
large figures represent Industry, Good For- 
tune, Prudence, Honesty, Commerce and 
Competition. Almost opposite is a house 
decorated by a bust of the poet Hermann 
von Gilm, to denote where he was born. The 
Ottenthalhaus has frescoes by Plattner (the 
Virgin and five famous Tyrolese, Peter Anich, 
Andreas Hofer, Oswald von Wolkenstein, 
Count Frederick, " With the Empty Pockets," 
and Jos. Ant. Koch). The Landhaus contains 
a hall of sessions for the Tyrolese Landtag, 
lighted by fine stained-glass windows. The 
K. K. Post and Telegraph Offices are lodged 
in the former palace of Thurn and Taxis. 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The so-called Paris Saal is rich in frescoes by 
Knoller. 

In spite of these many evidences of culture, 
every time you look up to the heights, there 
are the limestone peaks peeping into the 
street, to remind you that you are in an Alpine 
city after all. 

When the snow melts in spring, certain fan- 
tastic figures in black stand out from the snow 
on the limestone range, — veritable silhouettes 
on a grand scale. These are called locally 
Ausaperungsfiguren. A sudden south wind 
may bring them to life in a night, or a day's 
sunshine free them from their white shroud. 
There are groups called " The Torch-bearer 
and the Angel," the " Landsknecht," " The 
Hunter and Dog," " The Water-carrier," 
" The Witch," and " The Knitting Woman." 
The townspeople have learned to look for 
these recurring images, and to measure the 
approach of warmer weather by them. 

At its northern end the Maria Theresien- 
strasse suddenly contracts and becomes the 
Herzog-Friedrichstrasse. You find yourself 
in mediaeval Innsbruck, caught in the half- 
light of quaint and curious arcades. Many 
bow windows and hanging signs project into 
the street. A very ordinary-looking house, 

8 



Innsbruck 

with a very extraordinary balcony, closes the 
vista of the Herzog-Friedrichstrasse. It is 
the house of the " Goldene Dachl," — of the 
Golden Roof. The balcony consists of two 
stories, supported from the ground by delicate 
arches, the balustrades being decorated with 
carved armorial bearings in marble, and the 
walls with paintings. The roof, the Dachl, 
is covered with gilded copper tiles. The style 
is late Gothic, and the whole is brilliantly 
pictorial. The Goldene Dachl has now un- 
dergone a complete restoration. After being 
hidden from public view for many months, 
it was unveiled again on Aug. 3, 1899. The 
stone-cutters and fresco-painters had effected 
a transformation, and the 3,450 tiles had been 
regilded at an expense of about eight thousand 
gulden. 

For a long time it was supposed that the 
Goldene Dachl owed its origin to that popular 
favourite, Count Frederick of Tyrol, nick- 
named "With the Empty Pockets." The 
story went that he deliberately built this 
costly gilded roof in order to disprove the 
slur implied by his nickname. The fact is 
that Frederick built the house, but not the 
ornate balcony nor its gilded roof. It was 
the Emperor Maximilian who added these 

9 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

features after his second marriage, the one 
with Bianca Maria Sforza of Milan. The 
date 1500 is to be read above the central win- 
dow. 

In the little square where the house of the 
Goldene Dachl stands, you cannot fail to no- 
tice a highly decorated rococo house, the 
Holblinghaus. Near by, too, rises the Stadt- 
thurm, which is often climbed for the view. 
Around the corner is the Gasthof zum Gol- 
denen Adler, the Inn of the Golden Eagle, 
where so many celebrities have lodged in their 
day: Goethe, Heine, Andreas Hofer, and 
crowned heads like Emperor Joseph II., King 
Ludwig of Bavaria, and Gustave III. of 
Sweden. The proprietor will show you the 
middle window from which Andreas Hofer 
is said to have delivered his speech to the 
crowd in the street, on August 15, 1809. This 
was after the third battle on Berg Isel, when 
Andreas Hofer entered Innsbruck as the vic- 
torious commander-in-chief. A copy of this 
speech and two portraits of the hero are shown 
in the inn. Goethe was here in 1790, accom- 
panying the widowed Duchess Amalie of 
Sachsen-Weimar. The room he occupied is 
now adorned with a bust. Heine wrote that 
he found such naturally antagonistic portraits 

10 



Innsbruck 

as those of Andreas Hofer, Napoleon Bona- 
parte, and Ludwig of Bavaria hanging peace- 
fully side by side in the dining-room. Nie- 
buhr also visited the inn. 

There are many interesting features about 
mediaeval Innsbruck which deserve to be 
noticed. The Ottoburg, for instance, is the 
oldest building in the city. It was the origi- 
nal castle of the Andechs family. Frederick, 
" With the Empty Pockets," inhabited the 
house with the Goldene Dachl. During the 
reign of Maximilian I., the seat of local 
authority was transferred to a castle which 
stood on the site of the present Hofburg. 
This modern Hofburg was patched together 
by Maria Theresa at the end of the last cen- 
tury, out of the remaining parts of the former 
castle. It looks rather bare and barrack-like 
on the outside, but there are some fine rooms 
in the interior, and a Riesensaal with pictures 
by Maulbertsch. 

For a complete review of life in the Tyrol, 
it is well to visit the handsome, well-appointed 
Ferdinandeum on the Museumstrasse. If you 
have special studies to pursue, you will find 
the Custos a learned, and, what is more, an 
enthusiastic guide. 

There is a rich archaeological collection, 
ii 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

containing among its rarest objects the coffin 
of a Longobardian prince, which was orna- 
mented with gold bands and contained a 
golden cross. It was found at Civezzano, 
near Trent. In another room are the globes 
made by the peasant geographer, Peter 
Anich; also peasant costumes, musical in- 
struments and carnival masks. Philippine 
Welser's jewel-case is shown, as well as a 
priest's vestment embroidered by her. Special 
care is bestowed on the souvenirs of Andreas 
Hofer, Speckbacher, and Haspinger, which 
are viewed by the Tyrolese with almost relig- 
ious feelings. Among the paintings of modern 
Tyrolese artists, there is Karl Anrather's 
" Chancellor Biener," but, best of all, there 
is the Defregger rotunda, where the master's 
pictures relating to the war of 1809 are 
exhibited. Only three of the paintings, how- 
ever, are actual originals: (1) " Speckbacher 
and his son Anderl in the Inn of the Bear at 
St. Johann;" (2) "The Three Patriots, 
Andreas Hofer, Speckbacher, and Has- 
pinger;" and (3) " The Innkeeper's Son" 
(the son of the Tharer Wirth at Olang in the 
Pusterthal). The rest are copies of Defreg- 
ger's masterpieces made by his pupils under 
his personal supervision: " Speckbacher's 

12 



Innsbruck 

Call to Arms" (the original in the posses- 
sion of Herr Franz Lipperleid in Matzen, 
near Brixlegg) ; " The Mountain Forge" 
(original in the Dresden Gallery) ; " The Last 
Ban" (original in the Kunsthistorische 
Museum in Vienna) ; " The Return of the 
Victors " (original in Berlin) ; " Hofer in 
the Castle of Innsbruck" (original in the 
possession of the Emperor Francis Joseph) ; 
" Hofer Going to Execution " (original in 
Konigsberg) . 

A valuable library of Tyroliana is also 
maintained by the Ferdinandeum. Here, 
too, are kept the archives of the German and 
Austrian Alpine Club. 

Take it all in all, there is a great deal of 
individuality about this Alpine capital. Inns- 
bruck does not go to sleep in the winter, but 
has become a popular resort all the year 
round, where the pleasures of open air, out- 
of-door life are made accessible to a grow- 
ing contingent of visitors. 

Pretty much everything in the way of edu- 
cational facilities is provided by the city. 
There are babies in the kindergarten and 
students in the university. There are all 
manner of games and amusements. There is 
a theatre; a panorama of the Battle of Berg 

13 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Isel; a relief model of the Tyrol, and a per- 
manent industrial exhibition; while the 
brand-new Stadtsale supply concerts. Beyond 
the Hofgarten park, on the banks of the Inn, 
a peasant theatre gives representations of 
highly romantic knightly plays, or of droll, 
local comedies. Innsbruck, being the capital 
of a province, is also the seat of a governor, 
and the headquarters of an Austrian army 
corps of several thousand men. 

Hence, let us rejoice in Innsbruck, while 
the dear old peaks of the limestone ridge look 
down as severely as they may, or withdraw 
within their circling clouds; let the rapid Inn 
whirl by in a gray flood of melted snow, while 
the winds sweep across the meadow-lands, or 
whisper through the rustling patches of corn; 
let the sun lighten the mountain flanks and the 
groups of young trees in the forests; let the 
smell of flowers hover over the sloping pas- 
tures, while the smoke of pine-wood fires, ris- 
ing from many a high-placed aim, denotes the 
meek and humble homes of the sturdy toilers 
in the heights. 



14 



CHAPTER II 

THE HOFKIRCHE — TYROL'S WESTMINSTER 
ABBEY 

The Emperor Maximilian I. made ar- 
rangements during his lifetime for a sumptu- 
ous, monumental tomb to himself, and this 
was slowly finished in the course of the six- 
teenth century. To-day the tomb and its 
accompanying statues almost fill the church. 
The Hofkirche has become the veritable 
Westminster Abbey of the Tyrol. For not 
only does it contain the tomb of Maximilian 
I., but also that of the national hero of the war 
of 1809, Andreas Hofer. On either side of 
the latter lie his companions in arms, Josef 
Speckbacher and Joachim Haspinger. 

When you enter the Hofkirche, a certain 
lightness of form makes itself felt. Ten lofty 
red marble columns rise to the ceiling, which 
is decorated in rococo, and in the centre 
Maximilian in bronze is represented, kneeling 
on a monster marble sarcophagus. He is clad 

!5 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

in crown and armour and in imperial robe. 
Twenty-eight bronze figures surround the 
tomb, acting as the mourners and torch-bear- 
ers. All but two of these figures have the 
right hand stretched forward, and their hands 
rounded as in the act of holding torches. 

It is said that Maximilian himself chose 
the personages who were to do court duty 
around his tomb. Twenty-three of the 
twenty-eight were ancestors of his, or con- 
temporary relatives, male or female; five 
were his favourite heroes of antiquity. 
Among the latter stands King Arthur of 
England. 

The writer first saw this statue one mid- 
winter day, just before Christmas, while pass- 
ing through Innsbruck on the way to Meran. 
It was then little known in England or 
America, and has, in fact, only recently be- 
come well known to the outside world at 
large. In making the round of the bronze 
figures, the writer suddenly came upon this 
masterpiece among them, and was amazed 
that the whole world had not long since sung 
its praises. Americans may justly feel proud 
of the fact that the first plaster cast ever made 
from the King Arthur statue was one for the 
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The cura- 

16 




STATUE OF KING ARTHUR OF ENGLAND 
IN INNSBRUCK 



The Hofkirche 

tor of that institution deserves much credit 
in having popularized this artistic treasure 
among Americans. 

King Arthur stands erect; a tall, soldierly- 
young man. The pose is faultless. It is one 
of military readiness and alertness, yet with- 
out provocation. The whole forms an ideal 
of knighthood which recalls the age of 
chivalry at its best. The head is encased in 
a close-fitting helmet, the ornate visor is 
turned up, showing a manly face of the Teu- 
tonic order. One can almost imagine the eyes 
to be blue and the hair blond. Arthur wears 
a costly breastplate, plain greaves, and 
pointed shoes, while he holds the shield of 
Great Britain in one hand. 

It is now generally conceded that Peter 
Vischer, of Niirnberg, was the maker of this 
statue of King Arthur. 

Another statue ascribed to Peter Vischer 
is that of Theodoric the Great (Dietrich von 
Bern), King of the Goths, or Konig der 
Goott, as the inscription reads. 

It seems quite probable that the same man 
served as model for both statues, but Theod- 
oric, though he has his fine points, is no 
King Arthur. He leans somewhat too deject- 
edly upon his halberd, to inspire the same 

17 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

admiration. Still Theodoric finds favour 
with many sightseers, and copies of this work 
are to be seen in the store windows almost 
as often as those of King Arthur. 

Beginning on the right as we enter, we find 
( i ) Chlodwig, King of the Franks, a power- 
ful-looking warrior, with curly beard and 
spiked crown. (2) Philip I., surnamed the 
Handsome, King of Spain, eldest son of Maxi- 
milian, a young man with classic features, 
and an air of much distinction. (3) The Em- 
peror Rudolf of Habsburg, who wears his 
hair plastered very smooth down to his neck, 
where it curls up stiffly. (4) Duke Albrecht 
II., surnamed the Wise. (5) Theodoric the 
Great. (6) Duke Ernest of Austria and 
Styria. (7) Theodobert, Duke of Burgundy, 
who is entirely encased in most elaborate 
armour. (8) King Arthur. (9) Archduke 
Sigismund of Austria. (10) Bianca Maria 
Sforza, second wife of Maximilian. (11) 
Margaret, his daughter. (12) Cymburgis, 
wife of Ernest, Duke of Austria and Styria. 
The statues of (13) Charles the Bold, of Bur- 
gundy, and of his father (14) Philip the 
Good, are sharply contrasted. Charles is rep- 
resented as a cheerful, happy, and wholesome 
sort of man, while the good Philip is given 

18 




STATUE OF THEODORIC IN INNSBRUCK 



The Hofkirche 

a somewhat unsympathetic appearance. (15) 
Emperor Albrecht II. (16) Emperor Fred- 
erick III., father of Maximilian. (17) Leo- 
pold III., Margrave of Austria. (18) Count 
Rudolf of Habsburg, grandfather of the 
Emperor Rudolf. (19) Duke Leopold III. 
of Austria, who fell at Sempach, fighting 
against the Swiss. (20) Frederick IV., Count 
of Tyrol, surnamed " With the Empty Pock- 
ets." (21) Emperor Albrecht I. (22) God- 
frey de Bouillon, with a crown of thorns. 
(23) Elizabeth of Hungary, wife of Albrecht 
II. (24) Mary of Burgundy, first wife of 
Maximilian. (25) Eleonora of Portugal, the 
mother of Maximilian. (26) Kunigunde, sis- 
ter of Maximilian. (27) Ferdinand of Ara- 
gon. (28) Johanna, daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella of Spain, and wife of Philip I., 
surnamed the Handsome, Maximilian's son. 

The bronze figure of Maximilian himself 
is by Ludovico Scalza, called Del Duca, 
while the four allegories of Justice, Prudence, 
Strength, and Wisdom, are by Hans Lenden- 
streich. 

The authorship of the surrounding bronze 
statues is no longer in doubt. Apart from 
those of King Arthur and Theodoric, which, 
as already stated, were by Peter Vischer of 

19 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Nurnberg, they have all been identified as 
the work of Gilg Sesselschreiber of Munich, 
of Stephan Godl of Nurnberg, or of Chris- 
toph Amberger of Nurnberg. There was a 
foundry at Miihlau near Innsbruck, where 
almost all the casting was done. 

It is evident that a big book could be 
written around these personages, and made 
to cover the history of Europe during several 
centuries. 

Twenty-four reliefs in marble decorate the 
sides of the great sarcophagus on which Maxi- 
milian kneels. They may well be described 
as veritable pictures in stone of Carrara, as 
fine as ivory. So delicate is the workmanship 
that they are kept under glass, and one has to 
secure the services of the custodian to open the 
screen which surrounds the sarcophagus. In 
making the rounds as a tourist, it is, of course, 
difficult to estimate such minute work at its 
full value. The scenes represent various 
striking incidents in Maximilian's reign. All 
but three tablets in the series are by that 
Alexandre Colin who, though born at 
Malines, in Flanders, lived forty years in 
Innsbruck, and died there in 1612. The 
remaining three are by Bernhard and Arnold 
Abel of Cologne. 

20 



CHAPTER III 

MAXIMILIAN — THE LAST OF THE KNIGHTS 
(I459-I5I9) 

We cannot do much sightseeing in Inns- 
bruck, or for that matter in the Tyrol at large, 
without continually coming upon traces of 
Emperor Maximilian L, of the house of 
Habsburg- Austria. 

His was an all-pervading personality, fill- 
ing his age, and leaving a trail of legends to 
his credit in the mouths of his people. What 
did Maximilian I. look like? He was a man 
with an aquiline nose set in a broad face, with 
a delicately chiselled mouth, of which the 
lower lip protruded slightly, with keen, dark 
eyes, and long hair hanging to his shoulders, 
— he had the face of an artist, strong and 
sensitive, romantic and imaginative. His 
personality was commanding, yet full of 
temperament, full of kindliness. These 
traits appear in the many portraits of him 
which are extant, whether we take that su- 

21 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

perb portrait by Bernhard Strigel in the 
Pinakothek at Munich, his full face, by 
Lucas of Leyden, in the Gemaldegalerie of 
Vienna, his kneeling figure in Bernardo Zer- 
nale's picture in the Pinacoteca of Milan, his 
profile by Ambrose de Predis in the Kunst- 
historische Museum in Vienna, or, finally, that 
portrait by Albrecht Diirer, showing him in 
his declining years, which is now kept in the 
Gemaldegalerie in Vienna. The features 
are everywhere the same, even on numerous 
medals, coins, and in woodcuts. 

The marble tablets that surround Maxi- 
milian's cenotaph, in the Hofkirche, tell the 
story of his life. Let us turn the leaves of 
that illustrated text-book. We find, (i) 
" The Wedding of Maximilian with Mary 
of Burgundy." Charles the Bold, of Bur- 
gundy, had no son to succeed him. He left 
an only daughter, Mary, who presently found 
herself beset with difficulties, plunged into 
that network of intrigue into which the wily 
Louis XL had drawn her father, the Swiss 
Confederates, and the house of Habsburg. 
She found her subjects in Flanders rebellious, 
at the same time that Louis XL was drawing 
the duchy of Burgundy to himself and press- 
ing upon her the unwelcome suit of his son. 

22 



Maximilian 

In her troubles she appealed to young Maxi- 
milian, her betrothed from childhood. He 
started for Flanders to protect his bride, and 
to fight the King of France. He was only 
eighteen at the time, and she twenty. The 
wedding took place on August 19, 1477. 

It is not often that people marry for poli- 
tics and find love, but the marriage of these 
two young people, who had never seen each 
other before, certainly proved an exception 
to the rule. Their children were Philip, born 
in 1478, and Margaret in 1480. Mary of 
Burgundy was a young woman of consider- 
able charm. Her portraits do not show great 
beauty, but her eyes were attractive, her tem- 
perament bright, her carriage graceful, and 
she proved an eager companion for Maxi- 
milian on his rides and hunting expeditions. 
There is a touching little woodcut extant, 
in which the young couple are shown sitting 
together: Maximilian teaching his bride 
German and she teaching him French. 

In 1479 Maximilian defeated the French in 
(2) "The Battle of Guinegate." 

But his married happiness came to an end 
in 148 1. In the spring of that year Mary 
accompanied her husband on one of his expe- 
ditions, and during the hunt her horse stum- 

23 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

bled, threw her, and finally fell upon her. 
She died of her injuries, and was buried in 
the cathedral in Bruges, where the body of 
her father, Charles the Bold, already lay. 

(3) " The Storming of Arras," 1482. 

In i486, Maximilian's father, the Emperor 
Frederick III., called an imperial diet of the 
Princes Electors, to Frankfurt, to determine 
the succession. A marble tablet represents: 
(4) " The Coronation of Maximilian as 
Roman King," i486. The festivities at 
Aachen were on a sumptuous scale. After 
a triumphal entry into the city, Maximilian 
was crowned in the minster with the Roman 
crown, then he sat in Charlemagne's stone 
chair and knighted two hundred followers. 
A whole ox was roasted for the populace; 
inside the ox was a pig, inside the pig a goose, 
inside the goose a chicken, and so on to the 
smaller animals. This has been aptly called 
an example of the " grotesque gastronomy " 
of those days. 

(5) " Victory of the Tyrolese over the 
Venetians at Calliano, on the Adige between 
Trent and Rovereto," 1487. In the mean- 
time Maximilian, the Habsburg widower, 
began to look about him for a second wife. 
He first applied for the hand of a daughter 

24 



Maximilian 

of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. His 
overtures were not received. Two years later 
he turned his attention upon Anne, the young 
Duchess of Brittany. He offered his hand 
and was accepted. Anne of Brittany was 
hardly more than a child, and had been much 
attracted by what she had heard of Maxi- 
milian. But political necessity overthrew this 
project. As once before, the French broke 
into Maximilian's plans. Young Charles 
VIII., son of Louis XI., made war upon 
Anne's possessions, undermined her authority, 
and brought her into his power. As Maxi- 
milian did not come to her aid, he being 
involved in affairs in Hungary, she at first 
decided to go to him. But at the last moment, 
the poor young thing, hemmed in on all sides, 
gave up this attempt, and ended by marrying 
Charles VIII. and becoming Queen of 
France. 

Vienna had for several years been held by 
Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, but 
upon his death there followed the (6) " En- 
try of Maximilian into Vienna after its 
abandonment by the Hungarians," 1490. 
This was followed by a short campaign in 
Hungary itself to establish the rule of Habs- 
burg there. (7) " The Storming of Stuhl- 

25 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

weissenburg," the city where the Hungarian 
kings were crowned, 1490. 

Maximilian's grievance against Charles 
VIII. of France was twofold, — not only had 
he robbed him of his bride, but he had broken 
his engagement with Maximilian's daughter, 
Margaret, who had been betrothed to Charles 
since childhood. Maximilian had given her 
in charge of Louis XI. when she was only 
two years old. She had grown up at the 
French court. Now Charles held Margaret 
as hostage on account of Artois and Franche 
Comte, which were her dowry. Maximilian, 
deeply humiliated, was eager for war, but 
managed to obtain a treaty which gave him 
back his daughter and her dowry in lands. 
(8) " Return of Margaret," in 1493. 
Maximilian's second wife was Bianca 
Maria Sforza, niece of Ludovico Moro of 
Milan. A portrait of her by Ambrose de 
Predis, now kept in the Gemaldegalerie in 
Vienna, shows the pure Italian oval of her 
face, and a quaint and dainty arrangement 
of hair and jewelry. This marriage brought 
Maximilian four hundred thousand ducats in 
cash, and an opportunity of extending his 
power over the Alps into the rich plains of 



26 



Maximilian 

Lombardy. The wedding took place in Inns- 
bruck in 1494. 

(9) " Expulsion of the Turks from 
Croatia." 

The mere mention of the subjects depicted 
in the tablets shows Maximilian's restless 
activity. 

(10) " Alliance between Maximilian, Pope 
Alexander VI., Venice, and the Duke of 
Milan against Charles VIII. of France." 

(n) " Investment of Ludovico Sforza with 
the Duchy of Milan." 

(12) "Wedding of Philip, Maximilian's 
eldest son, to Johanna of Arragon, daughter 
of Ferdinand and Isabella." 

In the same year Margaret was married 
to Johanna's brother, Don Juan. 

(13) "Victory of Maximilian over the 
Bohemians at Regensburg," 1504. 

(14) " Siege of Kufstein," 1504. 

(15) "Taking of Guelders," 1505. 

(16) "The League of Cambrai," 1508. 

(17) " Entry into Padua." 

(18) "Expulsion of the French from 
Milan," 1512. 

(19) " The Second Victory at Guinegate," 
the Battle of the Spurs, 15 13. 

(20) " Meeting of Maximilian with Henry 

27 



The Fair Land Tyrol 
VIII. of England at the Siege of Tournai," 

(21) " Battle of Vicenza against the Vene- 
tians," 1513. 

(22) " Battle of Murano," 1514. 

(23) " Double wedding of Ferdinand, 
Maximilian's grandson, and Maria, his 
granddaughter, with Anne and Ludwig, chil- 
dren of Vladislaw, King of Hungary," 15 15. 

(24) " Defence of Verona against the 
French and Venetians," 15 16. 

The marble tablets of the Hofkirche, no 
less than the bronze figures which stand 
around the sarcophagus, recall many deci- 
sive moments in the world's history. 

The name of Charles the Bold, of Bur- 
gundy, recalls his attempt to found a middle 
kingdom between France and Germany. 
The mention of Louis XL of France brings 
forward historical events of great moment. 
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain are brought 
into the story at the very time when Christo- 
pher Columbus was discovering our new 
world. The tablets show us the Republic of 
Venice at the beginning of its decline, and the 
Swiss Confederation at the height of its 
military power. They give us a kaleidoscopic 



28 



Maximilian 

picture comprising also Hungary, Turkey, 
and the Papal States. In them we are re- 
minded of that long struggle for the posses- 
sion of the duchy of Milan; of the Flemish 
cities with their wealthy and independent 
citizens; of many leagues, marriages, and 
festivities. But Maximilian marches from 
one tablet to another, debonnaire and mediae- 
val. He goes a-hunting between chapters in 
history-making; and appears now and again 
in his character of " The Last of the Knights." 
Throughout his life Maximilian remained 
proud of the house of Habsburg, and did not 
hesitate to place on his seal that play upon 
the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, which reads, 
Alles Erdreich 1st Oesterreich Unterthan, 
All the World is Austria's Subject. 

It is to be observed that nothing appears 
in these tablets to show Maximilian's defeat 
at the hands of the Swiss Confederates in 
1499; and nothing of his imprisonment in his 
own castle by his Flemish subjects soon after 
his coronation. In truth, our hero was not 
always victorious. The tremendous hold 
which he obtained upon the popular imagina- 
tion must be sought in certain personal traits, 
in his activity, his generosity, his interest in 



29 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the life and pursuits of the people, as distin- 
guished from the aristocracy, and especially in 
his patronage of the arts and sciences. 

He caused certain series of woodcuts to 
be made to celebrate the deeds of the house 
of Habsburg and of himself. The first series, 
by Hans Burgkmair of Augsburg, was called 
" Geneologie." It contained seventy-seven 
drawings of Maximilian's ancestors in the 
flesh and in fantasy, beginning with Hector, 
Priam's son. 

Then came the " Austrian Saints," by Leon- 
hard Beck of Augsburg. " The Freydal " 
contained pictures of tourneys and festivities 
in which Maximilian participated. Other 
biographical series were called " Weiss- 
kunig " and " Teuerdank." Albrecht Durer, 
himself, in cooperation with the court his- 
torian Stabius, drew up plans for an " Eh- 
renpforte," or Triumphal Gate. Ninety-two 
sheets of this work were finished, though not 
paid for, and were sold singly after Maxi- 
milian's death. Finally Maximilian ordered 
a series called the " Triumphzug," the Tri- 
umphal Procession. When completed, this 
work contained 137 sheets, of which sixty- 
seven were by Hans Burgkmair, seven by 



30 



Maximilian 

Leonhard Beck, and the rest, certainly one 
of the imperial chariot, and of the several 
triumphal cars, by Albrecht Diirer, him- 
self. 



3i 



CHAPTER IV 

ROUND ABOUT INNSBRUCK 
Martinswand 

ALTHOUGH Maximilian liked to surround 
himself with men of the arts and sciences, he 
was an outdoor man of the most pronounced 
kind. 

If you look up from Innsbruck toward 
the limestone range to the north, you will see 
the Weiherburg, a favourite hunting castle 
of Maximilian. 

Maximilian's name is also connected with 
a great wall of rock lying westward from 
Innsbruck toward Zirl. The Martinswand 
is nothing more than a vast precipitous spur 
of the limestone range, already mentioned in 
the description of Innsbruck. 

The story goes that one day in 1493, Maxi- 
milian, while out chamois hunting on top of 
this spur, missed his footing, and rolled to the 

3 2 



Round about Innsbruck 

edge. There he clung, unable to move up or 
down. But his peril was observed from be- 
low, and a chamois hunter climbed around 
by the back and managed to rescue the much 
exhausted Maximilian. This chamois hunter 
was afterward ennobled under the name of 
Hollauer. A little path with a railing now 
leads up to the site of the rescue, where a cross 
and a bust of the emperor have been erected 
within a grotto. 

Berg Isel 

Pass out under the triumphal gate some 
morning to see the sights toward the south. 
Turn your back upon the cruel limestone 
range of the north and let your eye search 
the gentle spurs of the Mittelgebirge and the 
green mountains beyond where the Brenner 
Pass winds its way. The name of Berg Isel 
is popularly given to that little hill, off there, 
at the exact entrance of the Pass, although the 
name really covers the whole of the spur 
which runs down from the Stubai Valley in 
the direction of the valley of the Inn. Berg 
Isel recalls the heroic figure of Andreas 
Hofer, whose statue stands in the tiny park 
on the top of the hill. This statue is the work 
of the Tyrolese sculptor, Heinrich Natter. 

33 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

We find a powerful figure, dressed in the cos- 
tume of Hofer's native valley, the Passeierthal. 
The costume is of the beginning of last cen- 
tury. Andreas Hofer faces Innsbruck and 
points down upon it with his right hand, 
while his left presses the flag of Tyrol to his 
heart. The monument is flanked by two 
eagles. A bronze tablet bears the words, 
" For God, Emperor, and Fatherland." 

The notable dates for Berg Isel were April 
13th, May 25th and 29th, August 13th, and 
November 1, 1809. The Tyrolese, under 
Andreas Hofer, took Innsbruck three times 
in the same year from the Bavarians and the 
French. 

The sculptor frequently visited the Pas- 
seierthal in making his studies for the statue, 
but he died in 1892, a year before the unveil- 
ing, which took place amid great popular 
rejoicings. The Emperor Francis Joseph 
himself unveiled the monument in the pres- 
ence of the archdukes, the local authorities, 
and a vast concourse of peasants. 

The hill belongs to the Kaiser-Jager, or 
imperial sharpshooters, who also have a mu- 
seum there, and a little monument to them- 
selves, in memory of those of their number 



34 



Round about Innsbruck 

who have fallen in battle, in the Tyrol, in 
Italy, Hungary, and in Herzegovina. A 
rifle range is to be found on the side toward 
the Sill Valley. 

The Tummelplatz 

On the way from Berg Isel to Schloss 
Ambras lies one of the most impressive and 
characteristic spots in the whole of the Tyrol. 
During the wars of 1798 and 1809 Schloss 
Ambras was used as a military hospital and 
its ancient tournament grounds as a cemetery 
for friend and foe, to the number of almost 
eight thousand. 

The tournament grounds have now been 
changed into a sweet and silent grove. Parties 
of peasants wind their way among the trees, 
singing antiphonally. The soft sward under 
the pines muffles every footfall. The breeze 
sighs peacefully in the branches. The wood- 
land smell is sweet, and in this moist shelter, 
away from the glare of the country road, 
there is great calm and serenity, so that the 
voices of a jolly party, coming along the 
forest-path, drop to whispers as each person 
comes within the quiet circle of the trees. 



35 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Schloss Ambras 

It may be generally assumed that every 
castle in Europe was once a Roman castellum. 
Ambras, too, had a Roman beginning, but the 
first structure on the spot, which was worthy 
of the name of castle, was erected here by the 
family of Andechs, that family which was 
extremely influential in the valley of the Inn, 
before the rise of the Counts of Tyrol. They 
were a characteristic feudal race, these An- 
dechser, distinguished on battle-field and in 
council-hall. They were crusaders, pilgrims 
to Rome, officers of the empire, founders of 
many ecclesiastical institutions, and owners 
of estates from Burgundy to Istria. 

Edmund Oefele, their historian, claims for 
them that they were " beloved on earth, es- 
pecially by singers, for whom they always 
kept open house, and beloved in heaven, which 
they supplied with several saints." Upon 
the death of the last Duke Otto II., the family 
possessions passed into the hands of the Counts 
of Tyrol. 

The reader must be cautioned against de- 
riving the name Ambras, or Amras, as it is 
often written, from " Am Rasen," " By the 



36 



Round about Innsbruck 

Turf or Grass Plot." This derivation is not 
countenanced by historians. 

Enter the castle gate and you find yourself 
in a court, where a ticket of admission is re- 
quired. This can be obtained gratis, but only 
at the Hofburg in Innsbruck. Three parts 
of the castle are shown to sightseers : the 
Unterschloss, the Spanish Hall, and the 
Hochschloss. Since 1882 the three form a 
series of museums. In 1806, the main collec- 
tions were transported to Vienna, but in 1880 
portions of them were returned. The Unter- 
schloss contains a collection of armour and 
weapons, covering the period from the fif- 
teenth century to our own day. The frescoed 
Spanish Hall in its present restoration is bril- 
liant in colour, and interesting to the his- 
torian on account of its portraits of counts and 
dukes of the Tyrol from 1229 to 1600. Among 
the hunting trophies are many horns of the 
steinbock, an animal now extinct in the Alps, 
except in the royal Italian preserves in Pied- 
mont. The curios, bric-a-brac, and portraits 
of the Hochschloss are not of great value, and 
on the whole Ambras is not much of a suc- 
cess as a museum, but it captivates the vis- 
itor by reason of its charms of site and ar- 



37 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

chitecture. Moreover, it was the home of that 
interesting woman, Philippine Welser, the 
burgher wife of Archduke Ferdinand of 
Austria. 



38 



CHAPTER V 

PHILIPPINE WELSER (1527-1580) 

THERE is a portrait of Philippine Welser 
which no one who visits Innsbruck can fail 
to see in photographic reproductions. The 
original is in Vienna. 

She may not look a great beauty in the por- 
trait, owing to the somewhat peculiar head- 
dress of her day, but serenity sits upon her 
forehead and a light shines from her face, 
Her blond hair was such a marvel to the 
Italian artists who frequented the archducal 
court, that they called her simply " la bella 
Filipina." 

For a long time the romantic story-tellers 
had their way undisturbed with her life, but 
recently scientific historians have been prob- 
ing and setting facts in order. These will be 
found at their best in the account published 
by Wendelin Boeheim, and issued from the 
press of the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck. 
Philippine Welser's father, Franz Welser, 

39 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

was a well-to-do merchant of Augsburg. 
His brother Bartholomaus was, in fact, very 
rich. It was with ships supplied by the Wel- 
ser family that Venezuela was conquered by 
the Spaniards and colonized from Seville as 
the point of departure. 

Philippine was born in Augsburg, in 1527, 
in a house on the corner of the Maximilian 
and Katharinen Streets. The exact day of 
her birth is not known. 

Her marriage with Archduke Ferdinand 
took place in Bresnic, in Bohemia, in January 
of 1557, Ferdinand being twenty-eight years 
of age at the time, and Philippine thirty, two 
years his senior. 

In 1563, Ferdinand was appointed Gov- 
ernor of the Tyrol. He enlarged Schloss Am- 
bras, filled it with works of art, and made 
Philippine a present of it. In 1567 she 
moved in. The marriage was an exceed- 
ingly happy one. They had two sons, Andrew 
and Charles, the latter becoming ruler of 
Tyrol, under the title of Archduke Ferdinand 
Karl. Philippine was the typical Hausfrau 
living in a castle. The Venetian ambassador, 
after a visit to Ambras, reported to his Senate 
that " he [the archduke] could not be an 
hour without her." Philippine looked after 

40 



Philippine JVelser 

Ferdinand's comforts in the true Teutonic 
way, and when he was ill she tried her special 
medicines on him, for she kept a large store 
of them at Ambras. Once he came all the 
way from Hungary, where he was campaign- 
ing, in order to be nursed by her. Twice they 
travelled together to Karlsbad for the waters. 
She also went about nursing the sick of the 
neighbourhood, and kept a book in which 
she noted down those medicines which she 
thought were efficacious. This book, a folio 
of 127 pages, is also kept in the Court Li- 
brary of Vienna, while in the archives of 
Innsbruck more than fifty petitions are pre- 
served, directed to her from rich and poor, 
asking for favours of various kinds. She took 
special delight in surprising young women 
by giving them their wedding-dresses. 

Especially did she pride herself on her 
cooking, and actually wrote a cook-book. 
Hence she has her place in literature, as well 
as in romance. She was one of the first of 
that long line of ladies who have found pleas- 
ure in putting down their recipes. Her 
cook-book, with its 136 pages, reposes with the 
above mentioned documents in the Court 
Library of Vienna. 

I quote the following recipe, to show how 
4i 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Philippine used to make a " Black Torte," 
for Ferdinand. " You begin by taking eight 
to fourteen pears, according as they are large 
or small, then roast them, until they are soft, 
but not burned. Do the same with a quince, 
which will need more time, because it is 
harder. These fruits are then carefully 
peeled and pared, and placed in a pint dish, 
half-full of milk. Add nine eggs (yolk and 
white), sugar (rather too much than too lit- 
tle), and half a measure of grated almonds, 
making sure that there are no bitter ones 
among them. Force this mixture through a 
sieve, add cinnamon bark, cloves, pepper, gin- 
ger, and nutmeg, according to taste. The 
whole is served on a crust as thin as paper; 
finally, a frosting made of rose-water, white of 
egg, and sugar is poured on top." This is one 
of the simpler recipes in the cook-book; 
others are marvels of even greater complexity. 
Altogether, considerable state was kept up 
at Ambras, and there was much entertaining 
of one kind or another. The castle sheltered 
not only the usual assortment of servants, 
pages, and ladies in waiting, but also artists, 
scholars, clowns, giants, and dwarfs. At one 
time even some Turkish prisoners were sta- 
tioned there. Philippine had an enormous 

42 



Philippine JVelser 

larder to keep stocked, and Ferdinand was 
ready to expend vast sums on festivities, 
dances, banquets, mummeries, comedies, tour- 
naments, and hunting expeditions. He also 
amused himself in a well-furnished workshop 
in hammering gold and silver, or in turning 
objects of wood. He could even blow glass 
and cast metal. 

Philippine was in frequent communication 
with the Bavarian and Florentine courts. 
Sometimes she would send the Duke Al- 
phonso of Ferrara good things to eat, such 
as pots of preserves, Preisselbeeren, etc. Then 
the duke would retort with a present of fine 
hunting dogs. Philippine managed to get 
on very well with Ferdinand's ducal sisters, 
and Ferdinand was very good to her people, 
although some of the latter apparently tried 
to make his life a burden by constant appeals 
for money and place. 

From 1570 to 1580 the mistress of Ambras 
suffered from recurring attacks of sickness. 
On the 24th of April, in the latter year, she 
finally succumbed and died, attended by her 
husband, her sons, and many friends, for each 
of whom she had a kind word. At the last 
she is reported to have looked up and smiled. 
"Why do you smile?" asked Ferdinand. 

43 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

" I see something which pleases me," she 
answered, simply, and with this happy 
thought we may close the recital of her 
earthly career. News of her death was sent 
at once to the various European courts, and 
in Innsbruck her many modest friends and 
beneficiaries mourned for her greatly and 
long missed her sweet presence. 

Her will stipulated a great number of 
bequests which Ferdinand executed scrupu- 
lously. Her body lies buried in the Silver 
Chapel of the Hofkirche at Innsbruck. A 
mass of traditions and anecdotes quickly clus- 
tered around the figure of Philippine Welser, 
but we can best read her simple career in the 
souvenirs of the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, 
or in the Court Library of Vienna. Her 
prayer-book, cook-book, and medicine-book 
tell their stories. The cradle of her children 
tells another. A tournament favour em- 
broidered by her, a little desk, and even a 
leather case, containing knife and fork and 
spoon, her Essbesteck, all these bring her 
daily life before us. 

Hers was truly a sweet and capable indi- 
viduality, graced by much beauty of thought 
and gentle serenity of disposition. 



44 



CHAPTER VI 

THE VORARLBERG APPROACH 

As you journey from Switzerland to Inns- 
bruck you pass through the Vorarlberg, a 
small Austrian crown land. The name Vor- 
arlberg means very simply " Before-the- 
Arlberg," and includes all that is Austrian 
on the westward side of the Arlberg Pass — 
with the exception of the tiny vassal state of 
Liechtenstein. The summit of the Arlberg 
Pass forms the watershed between the Rhine 
and the Danube. The crown land is adminis- 
tered from Innsbruck in combination with 
the Tyrol. There is the same Statthalter, or 
imperial and royal governor, for them both, 
and the official documents are issued " For 
Tyrol and Vorarlberg." The latter also sends 
representatives to the Landtag at Innsbruck. 

There was an historic moment at the be- 
ginning of the fifteenth century, when the 
Vorarlberg, and a part of the Tyrol, too, came 
very near joining the Swiss Confederation. 

45 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

It was just after the mountaineers of Appen- 
zell and St. Gallen had thrown off allegiance 
to their abbot, and had beaten back the house 
of Habsburg at the battle of the Stoss. 

In alliance with the men of Schwiz, these 
mountaineers of Appenzell then crossed the 
Rhine valley and plunged into the Eastern 
Alps, crying liberty to the peasantry there, 
and destroying the castles of the nobility. In 
fact, Ital Reding of Schwiz had planned a 
new Alpine Peasant Republic. All Vorarl- 
berg and Western Tyrol had already taken 
the oath of allegiance, and the machinery of 
the feudal system had practically broken 
down, showing itself temporarily powerless 
to check the aspirations of this League of the 
People, when there occurred one of those 
strange reversals which history shows can 
hinge on very small matters. 

In January of 1408, a body of the men of 
Appenzell lay before Bregenz under the lead- 
ership of a certain captain from Schwiz. 
Here they were surprised and defeated by an 
army of Swabian knights, in league with 
Austria. This comparatively insignificant 
loss resulted in breaking the backbone of the 
Appenzell movement. 

In the end, the League of the People was 

46 



The Vorarlberg Approach 

dissolved by imperial sentence; the men of 
Appenzell withdrew once more to their 
mountains, and were admitted into partial 
membership within the Swiss Confederation; 
while the Vorarlberg, with the Western 
Tyrol, returned to the rule of Habsburg- 
Austria. 

The Bregenzerwald 

The northern part of the Vorarlberg is 
called the Bregenzerwald. It is a well- 
wooded region, rolling and crossed by tor- 
rents, a region, too, of soft slopes, given over 
to cattle raising and dairying. It has been 
named the Austrian Black Forest. There is 
an Outer and Inner district, just as Appenzell 
has its Outer and Inner Rhoden. Near 
Bezau, in the Inner district, stands a me- 
morial which shows how closely the political 
organization of the Bregenzerwald peasantry 
once resembled that of their neighbours, the 
Swiss. 

A Gothic column marks the spot where 
an ancient council-chamber formerly stood. 
There the " popularly elected Landammann 
and Council of the Inner Bregenzer Wald " 
made laws for the people. A simple wooden 
house stood on four wooden columns. The 

47 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

councillors mounted by a ladder, and then the 
ladder was withdrawn. It was not put back 
until the councillors had come to an agree- 
ment. 

There was a chief magistrate called the 
Landammann, as in the pastoral Cantons of 
Switzerland to-day; with him were asso- 
ciated a Landschreiber, or secretary, and 
Waibel, or sheriff, and twenty-four council- 
lors. Then there were forty-eight representa- 
tives from the different Gemeinden, or par- 
ishes. The election of the Landammann took 
place in a large field near Andelsbuch. 

This method of direct democracy and pure 
self-government lasted for centuries, until 
1807, when the wooden house disappeared. 
At present Bezau is only the seat of a district 
court. 

Angelika Kaufmann (1740 - l8oj) 

The village of Schwarzenberg, close by 
Bezau, was the home of Angelika Kaufmann's 
parents. " Miss Angel," herself, as Sir Joshua 
Reynolds used to call her, was born in Chur, 
Switzerland, and died in Rome. 

The parish church contains an altar-piece 
by her, and a marble bust of her stands in the 

48 



The Vorarlberg Approach 

left aisle. A pretty outlook hill near Schwar- 
zenberg has been called the Angelikahohe. 
So, too, at Bezau there is a house with eight 
pictures by her, which may be seen for a fee. 

Her father, John Joseph Kaufmann, was a 
painter, and little Maria Anne Angelika 
Catherine, to give her full name, very early 
proved her talent. At twelve she was already 
painting the portraits of persons of distinction, 
and at fourteen she was studying the old 
masters at Milan. 

She visited Rome, Bologna, and Venice. 
In Rome, especially, she enjoyed great popu- 
larity not only on account of her talent as a 
painter, but also by reason of her personal 
charms. Lady Wentworth, the wife of the 
English ambassador in Rome, persuaded her 
to go to London. 

Angelika Kaufmann was twenty-five when 
she made her appearance in England, in 1765. 
Among her most noted portraits were those 
of Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Lady 
Hamilton. In the first catalogue of the Royal 
Academy, that of 1769, her name was fol- 
lowed by an R. A. Reynolds, especially, be- 
friended her. In his pocket-diary her name 
appears as Miss Angelica, or Miss Angel. 
Royalty smiled upon her. She was appointed 

49 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

with others to decorate St. Paul's. She con- 
tributed largely to the Royal Academy, prin- 
cipally in the way of classical and allegorical 
subjects. 

The last twenty-five years of her life were 
spent in Rome, and, when she died, in 1807, 
she was honoured by a great funeral under the 
direction of Canova. 

" The entire Academy of St. Luke's, with 
ecclesiastics and virtuosi, followed her to 
the tomb in St. Andrea delle Frate, and, as 
at the burial of Raphael, two of her best pic- 
tures were carried in the procession." 

Her pictures are to-day found widely scat- 
tered, in London, Paris, Dresden, St. Peters- 
burg, and Munich. Three portraits of herself 
have retained a certain popularity, one in 
the Munich Pinakothek, another in the Uffizi 
at Florence, and a third in the National Por- 
trait Gallery of South Kensington. 

Landeck 

Between Feldkirch and Mayenfeld lies 
the station of Schaan. It gives access to 
Vaduz, the capital of the independent 
principality of Liechtenstein, which con- 
tains forty-two square miles, and ten thousand 

50 



The Vorarlberg Approach 

inhabitants; has a prince who is a vassal of 
Austria, a legislature of fifteen members, — 
and no taxes. 

In the valley of the young Rhine meadows 
and fields of American corn alternate with 
swamps and beds of gravel. There are mon- 
strous mountains to right and left; they cul- 
minate in torn teeth, and their walls are blank 
and staring. 

As far as Feldkirch, the train travels, gen- 
erally speaking, within sight of the Rhine, 
which forms the boundary between Switzer- 
land and Austria. There, however, it turns 
eastward to climb over the Arlberg to Inns- 
bruck. It mounts by successive curves and 
tunnels over embankments and bridges to the 
Arlberg Tunnel. Thence it descends with 
equal care on the other side to Landeck. 

At Landeck, that " Corner-of-land/' we 
meet another much frequented approach from 
Switzerland: the Finstermunz carriage-road 
from the valley of the Engadine. 

Hence it happens that Landeck is often the 
first place of any size which the tourist sees 
in the Tyrol. Strictly speaking, it is a village, 
but so large a one that it looks more like a 
town. The old fortress has lost much of its 
value since the alliance between Austria and 

5 1 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Germany, so that nowadays Landeck is prized 
more as a railroad station than as a strategic 
point. The big church is decorated in a 
modern way with glass windows from Inns- 
bruck and Munich, and on the open valley 
floor fertile crops wave in the Alpine air. 

The Finstermunz is the tailing-off of the 
Engadine. It is a canon-like gorge, at the 
base of which the Inn flows turbulently, and 
seeks an outlet from Swiss upon Austrian soil. 
The road runs along the face of the bare wall 
with an air of great skill and not a little 
bravado. Altogether, it affords one of the 
choicest sights in the Alps and is characterized 
by a keen and grim daring which is height- 
ened by the fortifications that are still main- 
tained. 

After Landeck, Imst deserves mention on 
account of an industry which flourished there 
during the eighteenth century. It was the 
centre of a great trade in canaries. Dealers 
in these birds found their way from Imst as 
far as Constantinople. There was even a 
regular depot for them in Moorefield Square, 
in London. Spindler's romance of the 
" Vogelhandler " is said to give a good pic- 
ture of this trade in its heyday. 



52 



CHAPTER VII 

DOWN THE VALLEY OF THE INN 

This trip takes us from the capital of the 
Tyrol down to the farthest tip of the province, 
where the Inn slips from our sight into 
Bavaria. We follow the course of the stream, 
attracted by the pale horizon, the mountains 
apparently meeting at times, but always mov- 
ing apart as we approach. The floor of the 
valley is sown with strips of different crops, 
like a quilt of many colours. White church 
towers mark the towns, castle turrets dot the 
countryside, and noble forests flank the val- 
ley on either side with their stately presence. 

Every gradation in the Alps has its distinct- 
ive charms. Those visitors who do not mount 
to the topmost peaks to clamber among the 
everlasting snows, may find their solace in the 
wonderful wastes of stone, in the summer pas- 
tures, or in the forests of pine on the slopes. 
One need ascend no higher than the lower 

53 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

woods to enjoy a great measure of pleasure 
and profit from a stay in alpine regions. 

Many a spot will be found where noble 
beech-trees abound, rearing their smooth gray 
trunks amid the tender green of their foliage. 
At their bases and in the sockets of their 
branches these beeches are adorned with rich 
green moss of opulent depth and smoothness 
well designed to set off the gentle mouse 
colour of the trunks. Elsewhere larches 
spread their pale green lace-work to the sky, 
and carpet the ground with fragrant needles. 

Beneath the trees hypaticas and anemones 
dot the ground in spring, and in places fa- 
voured by woodland rills and quiet pools 
sweet-smelling cyclamen balance themselves 
gracefully on their stems and nod to the way- 
ward breeze. 

It is pleasant, too, to wrest a secret from 
the cyclamen plant, and to find the under side 
of its smooth green leaves resplendent with 
a fine and noble red. 

A multitude of joyous surprises lie along 
the paths in the lower woods. Wild straw- 
berries, blackberries, and huckleberries bloom, 
blossom, and ripen in their seasons. Mush- 
rooms are there for those who understand 
them. A great variety of lovely butterflies 

54 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

spread their wings and hover over the flowers 
of the forest glades. Red squirrels, with sharp- 
pointed ears, dart and dangle among the 
interlacing branches, or stop to scold from 
their points of vantage. Ever and anon also 
in these lower woods of the Alps the cuckoo 
calls rhythmically and systematically from 
his hiding-places, and gives a characteristic 
note ever after to be associated with the 
forest landscape. 

Hall 

Hall is " the Niirnberg of the Tyrol," a tiny 
pocket edition of the big Bavarian folio. The 
town for a time seemed to present a case of 
arrested development. It stopped growing 
in the sixteenth century, like many another 
Tyrolese town, and we see it to-day very much 
as it was then, quaint and compact, with 
mediaeval accoutrements. 

A steep little street leads to the heart ol 
the miniature municipality, to the principal 
square, where the Rathhaus and the great 
parish church stand facing each other. As 
for peaked roofs, jutting balconies, swinging 
signs, street fountains, carved doorways, Hall 
abounds in them all, to the delight of the anti- 
quarians, historians, artists, and tourists alike. 

55 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

Germany passed through the town, and when 
the salt mines were being worked under full 
pressure. In those days even the courts of 
justice were opened with feasts of eating and 
drinking. Emperor Maximilian was often 
within hailing distance, and was frequently 
prevailed upon to grace the flourishing town 
with his imperial presence. 

The end of Hall's feudal prosperity came 
on slowly during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, with the decay of the mining in- 
dustry, and with a change in trade routes. 
To-day Hall is reviving slowly and placing 
itself upon a modern basis. It contains active, 
loyal, and devoted citizens, who are filled 
with the spirit of enterprise, and desire to 
see their native town take a prominent part 
in performing the great tasks toward which 
the Tyrol is steadily advancing. 

Jakob Stainer, Violin Maker (l62I - 1683) 

Absam is a village near Hall, on a height 
to the north. Here Jakob Stainer, " the 
father of the German violin," was born in 
1621. 

Little is known of his life, and apparently 
nothing at all of the manner in which he 

57 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

learned to make violins. Stories of his visits 
to Venice or Cremona lack historical founda- 
tion, but it is known that when Stainer was a 
young man, the ducal court at Innsbruck was 
particularly hospitable to Italian artists and 
musicians. He may, therefore, have become 
acquainted with one of the violinists stationed 
there, and may have started his life-work by 
imitating an Italian instrument. There is 
reason to believe that Stainer's first model 
was an Amati, but he undoubtedly developed 
a form of his own, as he progressed in work- 
manship. 

One thing is certain, namely, that in 1641, 
when Stainer was only twenty years of age, he 
was already peddling his violins about the 
fairs at Hall, selling them for six florins 
apiece. 

At one time a prosperous future seemed 
to stretch before him, after Archduke Ferdi- 
nand Karl had called him to Innsbruck, and 
named him violin maker to the ducal court. 
Later in life he was created violin maker to 
the imperial court by Emperor Leopold I., 
but nothing seemed to be able to keep him 
out of debt, or to overcome his dire poverty 
and want. He was constantly harassed and 
hampered by want of funds, and at length 

53 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

was actually dismissed from his much-cher- 
ished official positions. When he wrote to 
the emperor in his troubles, the latter refused 
to help him. At length the violin maker, 
overwhelmed by his cares, stopped work, and 
died in a pitiable condition in 1683, but his 
good work survived him and made his name 
honoured and respected. To-day a genuine 
Stainer is a highly prized possession, and 
through the sweet and noble tone of the in- 
struments he produced, the poor violin maker 
left a rich legacy, and earned the lasting 
gratitude of many friends. 

Fortunately, Stainer worked diligently, and 
turned out many violins. He was especially 
careful in selecting the wood for his instru- 
ments. Indeed, the pains which he took in 
this matter are astonishing. He would wander 
for days in the forests back of Absam, study- 
ing the trees. As a rule, he chose mellow, 
old ones, which were already beginning to 
die of! at the top. Before he felled them, 
he would always strike their trunks with a 
hammer in order to try the tone. But 
Stainer had also observed, what is familiar 
to every mountaineer, that tree-trunks, in com- 
ing down the lumber slides, give forth sing- 
ing notes as they strike against obstacles. 

59 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Stainer used to listen near these lumber slides, 
and then pick out for his purpose the trees that 
sang best. For certain parts of the violin, he 
preferred to use the seasoned wood of old 
doors or tables. 

Stainer also introduced innovations in the 
construction of the violin. The tops of his 
instruments are more highly curved than the 
Italian types. If a genuine Stainer is held 
sideways, and one looks into one of the / 
holes, one ought to be able to look out through 
the other. These / holes are also a trifle 
shorter than is usual in violins, and their end 
points are quite round. It is said that Stainer's 
changes made the vibrations in the instru- 
ment describe an ellipse instead of a circle, 
as had been the case before. 

Connoisseurs claim that the tone of a genu- 
ine Stainer is more flutelike, more sympathetic 
and singing than that of an Italian violin, 
while the latter is conceded to be more bril- 
liant, and in general, better suited to resound 
in concert halls. 

Mozart is reported to have owned a Stainer. 
The instrument bore the maker's name, and 
the date 1656. Many imitators arose after 
Stainer's death. Klotz, a pupil of Stainer, 
turned out many copies of his master's work 

60 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

from Mittenwald, a village just over the 
frontier in Bavaria, not far from Oberam- 
mergau. To this day the chief industry of 
Mittenwald is the manufacture of violins and 
guitars, which are exported in considerable 
quantities to England and the United States. 
Even Cremona, it is alleged, did not think it 
beneath her dignity to send out false Stainers. 
Violin experts of to-day have no easy task, 
therefore, in separating the spurious from 
the genuine Stainers, but whatever their suc- 
cess, it remains a curious commentary upon 
modern improvements that the form of the 
violin has hardly varied at all in all its his- 
tory, and that the older the instrument the 
better it grows, the sweeter, the nobler, and 
the more sympathetic its tone. 

Joseph Speckbacher (1767 - 1 826) 

The second in the trio of heroes in the war 
of 1809 was Joseph Speckbacher, who was 
born on a farm in the Gnadenwald, back of 
Hall. His father was a well-to-do peasant. 
Young Speckbacher earned some notoriety 
as a poacher, then settled down on a farm at 
Rinn, in the Mittelgebirge, almost opposite 
Hall. The house of this " Man of Rinn " 

61 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

is about half an hour's walk from the Baths 
of Rinn. 

The facts in his life which are of historic 
interest, may be summed up very briefly. 

He threw himself into the struggle of 1809 
with fiery enthusiasm. The Tyrolese histo- 
rian, Zingerle, says that he represented the 
strategic and intellectual side of the insur- 
rection, as Hofer represented the patriarchal, 
and Haspinger the ecclesiastical. His early 
poaching made him an ideal leader of sharp- 
shooters. He fought with more or less suc- 
cess until he was disastrously defeated on 
October 17, 1809, at Melegg, on the road to 
Reichenhall. Here his forces were com- 
pletely routed by the Bavarians, he himself 
severely wounded in the ensuing hand-to-hand 
struggle, and his little son, Anderl (Andrew), 
taken prisoner. King Max of Bavaria him- 
self took charge of the boy, and had him 
educated for seven years at his own expense. 
At the time of his defeat, Speckbacher barely 
escaped to his farm at Rinn, and remained 
in hiding there for seven weeks before he 
could escape from the Tyrol. 

Many conflicting accounts concerning the 
leader's sufferings and wanderings found 
their way into print, but Doctor Steub, an 

62 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

enthusiastic and indefatigable traveller in the 
Tyrol, took pains to extract the truth from 
Speckbacher's own descendants, and has set 
down the result in his interesting work. 

It appears that Bavarian soldiers were 
actually quartered in Speckbacher's house 
during the whole period of his concealment. 
He took refuge in a pit under his house. It 
was about four feet deep, and he could only 
hide there in a sitting posture. His wife, the 
doctor of the village, and two neighbours 
alone knew of his presence. He would move 
out of his hiding-place when the soldiers went 
off to drill in the village of Rinn. After his 
broken rib (a wound received at Melegg) 
healed, i. e., in about three weeks, he took 
shelter in the sheep stall, and finally, toward 
the first of May, after many narrow escapes, 
managed to cross the frontier into the Prov- 
ince of Austria, where he was well received 
and rewarded. 

In 1 8 14, when the war was over, Speck- 
bacher returned to Rinn, sold the farm, and 
settled in near-by Hall with his wife. He 
was now a real major, retired, on a pension 
of a thousand gulden a year. Here he spent 
six quiet years, until his death, in 1820. 



63 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

He was generally well pleased to talk over his 
stirring career. 

In 1870, Doctor Steub was fortunate 
enough to hear some further details of Speck- 
bacher's life from the parish priest of Rat- 
tenberg, F. X. Asher, who spent several years 
in Speckbacher's house at Hall. 

It appears from this account that Speck- 
bacher was present in Vienna at the great 
Congress of 181 5. When King Max of 
Bavaria arrived in that city, the Emperor 
Francis of Austria said to Speckbacher: 
" You must go to the King of Bavaria and 
thank him for having had your boy learn 
something/' The emperor addressed Speck- 
bacher with the familiar du, which pleased 
the sharpshooter immensely; so did the 
present of a golden medal and fifty ducats. 
Speckbacher thanked King Max as he had 
been told to do, and King Max generously 
said: 

" Enter my service as a major and I will 
promote you at once to be a general. Leave 
your son; he will do better in Bavaria than 
in Austria." 

Speckbacher thanked the king for his kind 
intentions, but declined the honours. In our 
own day a play entitled " Speckbacher " is 

64 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

enacted in the big village of Brixlegg during 
the summer season. 



Toward Kufstein 

In our progress down the valley of the Inn 
to Kufstein, we pass a succession of attractive 
and interesting places where the traveller 
will do well to linger for a closer acquaint- 
ance. The old town of Schwaz, across the 
river from the railroad, once contained some 
thirty thousand inhabitants, and its silver 
mines greatly enriched the princes of the 
Tyrol. To-day only a little iron and copper 
mining remains to tell the tale of former work 
and wealth. 

A little farther along a sudden opening in 
the mountains appears on the left, and high 
up against the green of the forest are seen a 
white church and house, perched upon a pre- 
cipitous crag. That is St. Georgenberg, an 
ideally placed pilgrimage resort. 

Below Schwaz the castle of Tratzberg 
rises on the left, one of the most imposing of 
Tyrol's many castles, as well as one of the 
richest in antiquities and objects of art. 

Now Jenbach looms in the distance, and two 
new valleys open on either hand: one to the 

65 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

north, leading to the Achensee, and another 
to the Zillerthal on the south. 

For the present let us keep straight on down 
the valley of the Inn. 

Just before Brixlegg is reached three castles 
start up on our right: Kropfsberg, Lichtwer, 
and Matzen. The last is the property of Mr. 
Baillie-Grohman, whose book on " Tyrol and 
the Tyrolese " has done so much to familiar- 
ize English-speaking travellers with land and 
people. 

Brixlegg itself has attracted attention in 
recent years on account of its Passion Play, 
which is given there periodically. The play 
has been given in 1868, 1873, 1883, 1889, and 
1903. 

The train passes under the castle of Ratten- 
berg, with which place the name of Wilhelm 
Biener, Chancellor of the Tyrol until 165 1, is 
associated. His story has inspired Karl An- 
rather's large painting in the Ferdinandeum 
at Innsbruck, as well as an historical novel, 
" Der Kanzler von Tyrol," by Hermann 
Schmid. 

After Rattenberg there is open ground for 
awhile, then comes the railroad junction of 
Worgl, and finally at the very end of our 
journey down the Inn stands Kufstein, block- 

66 




MAN OF KUFSTEIN 



Down the Valley of the Inn 

ing the narrows of the river, so that there is 
barely room for the river, the carriage and 
the railroad to pass. 

With what wonder and delight does the eye 
welcome the splendid and courageous little 
city. It is not possible to see Kufstein for the 
first time unmoved. It belongs to the category 
of Austrian cities with citadels, like Salzburg 
and Graz. Though not as large as they, it yet 
belongs to the class of dramatic and proudly 
perched cities whose very aspect challenges 
attention and respect. 

Kufstein's position is eminently strategic, 
and, in fact, it has had more than its share of 
sieges on account of the curious hostility 
which once existed between the Tyrolese and 
Bavarians. This feeling has now happily 
changed to one of mutual good-will between 
the allied German and Austrian empires, and 
peace and prosperity reign undisturbed on the 
border. 



67 



CHAPTER VIII 

KITZBUHEL — LIFE ON THE ALM 

COME, my friend, the valleys seem too con- 
fining, and the mountains call. There are 
slopes where anemones bloom and gentians 
gleam in their full pride; where straying 
bees flutter over the early heather, and the 
breeze is fresh with the keen tonic of the 
mountains. Come to the summer pastures, 
smooth as velvet, swelling and sinking in 
monster billows ; I know where there are bare 
crags casting jagged shadows, and where tiny 
huts, huddled together in basin-like depres- 
sions, will give us shelter, and where we can 
study the life on the aim, and hear its songs. 

Kitzbuhel is our starting-place, and the 
Kitzbuhelhorn our goal. 

Pass your stick between the straps of your 
Rucksack as a chamois hunter carries his 
rifle. Then get into the steady swing of the 
mountaineer and lean well forward to perfect 
your balance, for the path is steep. 

63 



Kitzbiihel 

As we mount, our figures pierce the morn- 
ing mist that clings to the mountainside in 
thin streamers. When we have left the last 
groves of pine, and have come out above the 
timber line, it is time to stop for a moment 
to send a shout into the valley below. Here 
and beyond begins a new world; a new air 
fans the cheeks and new sounds come to the 
ears. The jingling of bells rises and falls 
on the breeze. The cattle are being driven off 
from the huts to feed in the open, to wander 
all day among the Alpine flowers. 

At the door of the first hut we stop for a 
drink of milk. The woman herder in charge 
of the hut smiles pleasantly as she hands out 
a shallow wooden bucket, which serves as well 
as a glass. 

There is no better district in the Tyrol for 
studying that life on high, than the Kitzbiihel 
range. Over the border, in Salzburg, the 
territory contiguous is equally profitable. In 
fact, the whole mountain group which lies 
between Kitzbiihel, Saalfelden, Zell am See, 
and Mittersill, is good ground for our re- 
searches. Here customs are retained which 
have disappeared elsewhere. Annual athletic 
contests are held on certain plateaux, whither 
champion wrestlers come from the valley of 

69 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the Inn, the Pinzgau, the Oetzthal, and the 
Pusterthal. The contest on the Kitzbiihelhorn 
takes place every June, on a level space near 
the mountain inn. 

The view from the tiny white chapel on the 
summit of the Kitzbiihelhorn is certainly one 
of the most paying for the pains. 

The Hohe Salve, though equally accessible, 
and rejoicing besides in the subtitle of " The 
Rigi of the Lower Innthal," is not quite as 
high as the Kitzbiihelhorn, and its view does 
not comprise quite so many snow peaks. 

From the Kitzbiihelhorn the whole Tauern 
range gleams toward the south. So do the 
Zillerthal mountains. The Gross Glockner 
and the Gross Venediger lie silver-white upon 
the horizon, like spring clouds resting upon 
the west wind. 

Northward, the naked, gray Kaisergebirge 
rear massive limestone walls, bleak and bris- 
tling. Down over the edge from where we 
stand, lies Kitzbuhel, the town. A train on 
the long curve near the town, leaves a tail 
of smoke behind it. There is a thin, distant 
whistle, and a long-drawn rumble. From the 
lower woods comes the call of the cuckoo, a 
recurring fluty rhythm, pulsating through the 



7° 



Kitzbuhel 

atmosphere. A peal of bells rings up from 
the parish church below. 

The peculiarity of the Kitzbuhelhorn- 
massif is, that the pastures rise and fall for 
miles. It is possible to walk for days at an 
average altitude of about five thousand feet, 
first to the Gaisstein, then by the Pinzgauer 
Promenade to the Schmittenhohe, in the prov- 
ince of Salzburg. This mountain group 
forms a vast dairying summer resort. 

Stopping at another hut, we ask if anybody 
plays the zither there. A young herder is 
pointed out to us, but he shakes his head, and 
will have it that he cannot play. The peas- 
ants have a way of denying any accomplish- 
ment, when first asked, but presently, after 
some parleying, the herder takes down his 
zither from the wall, and begins to play. And 
how he enjoys it, that young fellow! How his 
instrument tingles, and the syncopated notes 
leap from the ring on his thumb! Think of 
making music up there, above the timber line, 
in the full sunshine, with nothing between you 
and the sky! Only the herds of cattle look 
on, and jingle their bells on the summer pas- 
tures. 

Cloudy days, too, have their charm on the 
aim, days when a silent mantle of mist or haze 

71 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

settles upon the scene, inviting meditation and 
the sweet solace of an alpine quiet. The day 
may have dawned surpassingly fair and clear, 
but suddenly, from many quarters, the clouds 
are detected creeping upon us like some 
stealthy enemy, to surround and hedge us in. 
They prove to be a welcome, kindly enemy, 
that means no harm. They come from 
around the corners of the ridges, over the 
mountain saddles, and between the peaks. 
They feel their way along the precipices, and 
advance fitfully over the green, halting once 
and again to scout and reconnoitre the ground. 
Little streamers and separate cloudlets are sent 
on ahead, or to the sides, and there they hover 
timidly till the main body of clouds overtakes 
them, and the whole mass pushes forward to 
capture the landscape with a gentle and moist 
caress. The clouds blot out one by one the 
landmarks of the aim, the farther slopes, the 
little alpine lake, where the cattle drink, and 
the isolated cedars that have stood the storm 
and stress of a century. Finally the mist cuts 
off from view the near-by huts and the graz- 
ing cattle as they munch the damp grass, 
dotted with many perfumed flowers. A 
pleasant stillness pervades the aim, a peace- 
ful, protective hush enfolds it, until such time 

72 



Kitzbuhel 

as a clearing gust shall blow through the ra- 
vines. The clouds have for the present brushed 
aside distracting sights. We seem to be at sea, 
or up in the air, separated from the humdrum 
human occupations of another world. 

As we listen, there comes through the mist 
a measured jingling from the bells of unseen 
cattle. Close by a cow gives her bell a rapid 
rattle as she rubs against the rough side of a 
stable hut, or briskly switches off the flies. 
The dull thud of the strokes of an axe reaches 
us from where some one is splitting wood for 
the fire, or a herder calls to the sheep ranging 
in the lofty recesses of the surrounding moun- 
tains. 

It is a great privilege to know the aim at 
any time, even in the hour of the clouds. But 
in the heights, clouds and mist do not always 
mean rain, for they come and go uncertainly, 
flitting and drifting before the wind. There 
may be the smell of fog, and the touch of the 
hand may grow moist, but the dwellers on the 
aim go about their work unheeding and un- 
mindful of the change. A sudden break may 
come at any time, and even while we look, 
behold the peaks stand out once more clean cut 
against the blue, the landmarks of the aim 
return one by one to view, and the cattle are 

73 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

seen again browsing unconcernedly and con- 
tentedly just where the clouds found them and 
left them. 

As the day declines, the cows are driven in, 
to be milked. Herds of calves are shooed into 
enclosures for the night. Now the children 
also are caught and put to bed, in spite of 
some remonstrance on their part. They are 
mostly tow-headed little things, the little girls 
with their hair in pigtail braids, and the 
boys wearing faded felt hats, ornamented with 
cock's feathers. Women wash wooden pails at 
a fountain, surmounted by a rudely carved 
figure of St. Florian. Presently a man is seen 
making his way cautiously toward the central 
hut, where the cheese is made. He carries a 
hod full of fresh milk. When he has care- 
fully deposited his milk, the herders and their 
women take a short rest on the benches in front 
of the huts, before going to bed, while the 
fountain trickles and gurgles complacently. 

From near by comes a shout and a laugh, 
and a man comes striding down the mountain- 
path. The moon is up, and he carries his 
shadow with him. He is going the way we 
shall go to-morrow, — down the slopes to St. 
Johann-in-Tyrol. Occasionally he disappears 
behind a knoll. 

74 



Kitzbukel 

To the south the impalpable snow moun- 
tains glisten in the faultless air. The cattle, 
after having been milked, have been driven 
off, and are out for the night. Sometimes a 
cow, standing on a projecting hillock, bellows 
triumphantly over the scene. 

The cool night-wind draws through the 
recesses of the range. The footfall of the pass- 
ing herder can no longer be heard, nor the 
vibration felt on the sod, but after awhile a cry 
comes from afar off, through the Alpine still- 
ness, a final yodel, tense, defiant, and true, 
but mellowed and refined, by the distance. 
It is time to turn in and leave the little flowers 
to the gentle dew, and this blessed and benign 
scene to the peace of the end of the day. 



75 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ACHENSEE 

The Achensee is so very blue, that, by con- 
trast, the other lakes of the Tyrol would seem 
to have turned green with envy. The blue 
of the Achensee has a quality apart, as unmis- 
takable as the blue of the gentian or the for- 
get-me-not, when it climbs above the timber 
line. 

Among the lakes of the Alps, Lago di 
Garda, the Walensee, and Lake Leman are 
blue, yes, marvellously blue, but the Achensee 
is blue in its own way. Take ultramarine and 
mix into it a little of the early morning sky 
and the pure glitter of the glacier, and you 
will get the colour of the Achensee when the 
sun shines. 

A little mountain railroad climbs from 
Jenbach to Seespitz. There are some people 
who never walk when they can ride, but if you 
care to make the ascent on foot, settle your 
Rucksack more firmly into the small of your 

76 



The Achensee 

back, and take the road along the mountain 
torrent. You may see much on the way to 
repay you as you swing along. 

At Seespitz a whole gallery of Defregger 
types walked into the inn where I sat. They 
were gamekeepers from the neighbouring 
chamois preserves of the Duke of Coburg. 
Their tight-fitting toggery had weathered 
into strange colours, their bare knees were 
brown from exposure, and their iron-shod 
shoes made a great clattering and scrunching 
on the stone floor. 

The picture was complete, when they laid 
their rifles aside, and sat there smoking and 
pounding the table, while some crooked- 
legged Dachshundchen waddled about, look- 
ing for scraps. 

A steamboat makes the tour of the Achen- 
see, and rowboats of the usual flat-bottomed, 
Alpine type can be hired at the various settle- 
ments on the shores. 

The Pertisau is a delta-shaped pasture that 
creeps down to the water's edge from the 
shelter of the mountains. Here are several 
hotels, notably the Furstenhaus, the property 
of the Benedictine abbey of Viecht, near 
Schwaz. The Furstenhaus was once a shoot- 
ing-lodge of the princes of Tyrol. The Abbot 

77 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

of Viecht rebuilt it into a summer residence, 
and it is now kept as an open house for 
guests. 

Seehof, across the lake, was built by Lud- 
wig Rainer, nephew of Joseph Rainer, the 
famous yodeler from the Zillerthal. 

The Scholastika Inn, at the upper end of 
the lake, calls for comment. Its name comes 
from a certain good spinster, Scholastika, 
niece of Anton Aschbacher, one of the heroes 
of the insurrection of 1809. Under her care 
the place became quite famous as the resort 
of scholars and men of letters. Dr. Ludwig 
Steub describes the life of the inn during the 
early half of last century as one of great charm 
and interest. The evening hours were filled 
with discussions, when a dozen or fifteen 
guests sat under the patriarchal sway of Dr. 
Johann Schuler of Innsbruck. 

The old spinster is now long since dead, and 
the inn has grown into a hotel, as indeed the 
Achensee itself has become one of the most 
important among the show places of the 
Tyrol, since the railroad brings an annual 
stream of many thousand tourists. 

The descent from Seespitz to Jenbach may 
be made by way of Eben, along a pleasant 
foot-path that goes turn and turn about, over 

78 



The Achensee 

and down, this way and that, zigzagging into 
the green valley of the Inn from the shores of 
that thrice blue Achensee, greatly blessed with 
beauty. 



79 



CHAPTER X 

THE ZILLERTHAL 
The Valley of Song and Dance 

THE Zillerthal is the valley of the zither 
(music), the Schuhplattler (dance), and the 
Schnaderhupfl (poetry). Three, at least, of 
the Muses are always at home there to their 
friends. 

From the village of Strass the Zillerthal 
stretches in a wide and flat floor as far as 
Maierhofen. It is even swampy in parts, for 
the torrent of the Ziller has built up a bed of 
rubble for itself above the level of the valley, 
and a constant process of infiltration and 
inundation has made the valley floor spongy 
and mossy. 

On either hand, however, the higher slopes 
glow with velvet pastures, and the mountains 
wear their regulation clothing of green-black 
firs up to their waists. The greeting of the 

80 



The Zillerthal 

people is that genial " Griiss Gott! " which 
carries with it peace and kindliness. 



The Tyrolese Yodel 

Fiigen, in the Zillerthal, was the home of 
that Joseph Rainer, who, in the early years 
of last century, started the Tyrolese yodel 
carolling round the world. 

He was first of all a cattle dealer, like many 
another man from his native Zillerthal. His 
business carried him frequently into the great 
outside world of plains, even to Mecklenburg 
and Prussia. One day, in Leipzig, his atten- 
tion was caught by a poster which advertised 
a concert by four Tyrolese singers. He went 
to the concert. It proved to be a great success, 
and Rainer promptly wrote home to his 
brothers and sisters that there was money in 
yodeling. He told them to take some gloves 
along, to peddle, in case their songs failed to 
draw audiences. Gloves were then, and are 
still, a common merchandise for peddlers 
from the Zillerthal. 

Four of the family joined Rainer, three 
brothers and one sister. They met at Frei- 
sing-on-the-Isar, north of Munich, and there 
began to sing before small audiences. In 

Si 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

1828, the Grand Duke of Baden invited them 
to sing in the theatre at Karlsruhe. That was 
the beginning of great things. Finally, a tour 
in England netted them 56,000 gulden, or 
about $23,000. Rainer returned to Fugen, 
bought an old castle, turned it into a hotel, 
hung the rooms with English prints, and 
eventually died there. 

Various members of the original Rainer 
family continued for many years to yodel in 
distant parts of the world, even in the United 
States. Their example was followed by 
others, notably by certain Leo brothers, who 
were very successful. 

The first Tyrolese song was the Schnader- 
hupfl, of four lines, which the dancer extem- 
porized as he threw down his money for the 
musicians. This pay gave him the privilege 
of the floor for his handler (waltz), or his 
Schuhplattler. By process of selection, the best 
of these Schnaderhupfl survived, and were 
added to the permanent stock of folk-lore. 
But the Schnaderhupfl was found to be too 
short for concert purposes, and new songs had 
to be written for the strolling singers. The 
songs we hear nowadays are not, as a rule, 
local products at all; they are written in the 



82 



The Zillerthal 

plains, though many of them have worked 
their way back into the Alps. 

A change has likewise taken place in the 
make-up of these singing companies. At first 
the singers went out into the world by families, 
merely transferring their performances from 
the family hearth to the concert hall. But 
after awhile the demands of art called for 
tenors, sopranos, altos, and basses, and took no 
account of family ties. Still, however, the 
selections were made from the same valley or 
district. Now even this requirement has been 
abolished, and it is alleged that some so-called 
Tyrolese quartettes are made up of artists who 
have never been in the Tyrol at all, but come 
from the neighbouring highlands. 

Zell am Ziller 

Zell is the chief place of the valley, the 
capital of the Zillerthal. Seen from the sur- 
rounding slopes, it looks as though it had been 
dropped ready-made from the sky upon the 
banks of the rapid torrent of the Ziller, a 
little place of a distinct individuality which 
has been derived from the time when inter- 
communication between different valleys was 



83 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

rarer than now, and there was no steam- 
engine to disturb the stillness of Alpine life. 

Early one morning of my stay there was a 
tremendous burst of gunpowder from mortars 
fired on the neighbouring hills. Every house 
was seen to be beflagged with the red and 
white colours of the Tyrol, or the black and 
yellow ones of Austria, and through the streets 
thus made brilliant, a procession slowly 
wound its way. In front marched a company 
of Schiitzen (sharpshooters), clad in tight 
black breeches, white stockings, high laced 
shoes, wide belts, marked with the wearers' 
names, red vests, and gray jackets, bordered 
with black braid. 

But the crown of the costume was the Ziller- 
thal hat. This is made of black felt, and in 
shape resembles somewhat the traditional cap 
worn by Mercury in his statues, though the 
crown is not quite as flat. It is enlivened by a 
cord, and two gilt, or silver tassels, which 
hang down in front. The whole forms as 
simple and becoming a bit of head-covering 
as can be found the world over. Curiously 
enough, this hat has been discarded by the 
men, except in the case of these local com- 
panies of Schiitzen. On the other hand, 
almost all the women still wear it on Sundays, 

8 4 




WOMEN OF THE ZILLERTHAL AND INNTHAL 



The Zillerthal 

— young and old, tassels and all, with the 
most charming results. It expresses a quality 
which the Tyrolese greatly appreciate, 
Schneid, which means dash, sauciness, ready 
wit, and a great many other qualities too nu- 
merous to mention. And, indeed, it was a 
pretty sight, the bevy of women walking 
sedately to the tune of a brass band, their eyes 
shaded by the glinting tassels. 

If your itinerary permits an extra day or 
two in Zell, it will pay to climb to the Gerlos 
range, lying to the east of the valley, in order 
to visit the summer pastures up there, and see 
the life on the aim. Though the fare may 
be primitive, and possibly confined to bread 
and milk, and though you may have to sleep 
on the hay, with the cold night air drawing 
through the slits in the sides of the barn, yet 
the outlook will amply repay. Whoever has 
not looked off from a high-placed aim upon 
the world beneath, has yet much joy ahead. 
You seem to be suspended in space, and yet 
you stand on a firm green foreground and 
gaze into a blue distance. The air and sun 
are both keen and caressing, and give relish to 
your thoughts. From the Gerlos range the 
whole of the Zillerthal proper is visible with 
its villages and river. At daybreak the valley 

85 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

lies in the nebulous half-light of the waking 
earth. A yellow line of road winds south- 
ward to Mayerhofen, where the Zillerthal 
divides into four branches, or ramifications, 
and these in turn into many Grunde or bot- 
toms, as we should say, until the great snow 
mountains cut them off short at the end. It 
is all glorious and grand, and calls for grati- 
tude. The impression and recollection will 
deepen as you descend once more into the 
expectant valley while the rays of the rising 
sun penetrate farther and farther into its re- 
cesses. 

Ginzling 

From Mayerhofen, at the end of the Ziller- 
thal proper, a path leads through the superb 
gorge, known as the Dornauberg-Klamm, into 
the Zemmthal. This Alpine ravine can hold 
its own with many of the more celebrated 
narrows of the Alps. 

When we emerge on the other side, we are 
in the midst of the real mountains at last. 
Whatever of tameness the flat floor of the 
Zillerthal proper may express, here all be- 
comes rugged and dramatic. The very rocks 
along the boiling Zemmbach make the 
stranger welcome, for they are covered with 

86 



The Zillerthal 

a red growth that looks like rust, but when you 
rub it on your hands, it emits the familiar and 
lowland perfume of the violet. Thus does 
this rock vegetation teach the homely lesson 
that oppression may even be made to serve 
the purposes of good. 

Ginzling consists of a church and parson- 
age, an inn, a schoolhouse, a forester's lodge, 
and detached peasant cottages, the whole 
forming a microcosm of the patriarchal Aus- 
trian system. Until recently the mail arrived 
only once a day, on the back of a donkey. If 
you inquire, you will find that the school- 
teacher is the busiest man in the place. Not 
only does he teach, but he also plays the organ 
every day in church, and when his choir of 
men and boys are away earning their living 
as guides and porters, he sings the responses 
himself. Between times he cultivates his fields 
of oats and flax. Even the linen he and his 
family wear are home-grown and home-made. 

As elsewhere throughout the Tyrol, many 
good-humoured German tourists, in woollen 
mantles of Loden, a material manufactured 
principally in Innsbruck, bring cheer to the 
Ginzling inn with their marvelous good 
spirits and their contagious enthusiasm. 

The torrent of the Zemmbach is more im- 
87 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

portant than it looks. Not only is it full of 
trout, which, by the way, I was informed, the 
innkeeper alone has the right to catch, but 
it also acts as the boundary between two 
bishoprics: Brixen and Salzburg. 

The inn, on the right bank, belongs to the 
parish of Mairhofen, in the diocese of Salz- 
burg; and the church, on the left, to the 
parish of Finkenberg, in the diocese of Brixen. 
The forester's lodge pairs off with the inn, but 
the school with the church. 

In the wide valley of the Floitenthal are 
the chamois preserves of Prince Auersperg, 
whose family belongs to the group of great 
territorial magnates. High on the mountain- 
sides haystacks are visible, which the game- 
keepers prepare for the chamois for winter 
use. The keepers themselves are often seen 
stalking about in full war-paint, their rifles 
slung across their backs, dogs at their heels, 
and china-bowl pipes in their mouths. Their 
hats are always the greenest, their feathers the 
curliest, and their bare knees the most bronzed 
of any among the men. 



88 



CHAPTER XI 

OVER THE BRENNER PASS 

THE Brenner railroad is a vast rope, coiling 
itself over the mountains, through convenient 
openings, and at the points of least resistance. 
Now and then it burrows into the earth, now 
and then it throws out a loop. 

When you have crossed one railroad pass, 
you have crossed them all. It is a repeated 
turning and twisting, punctuated by a succes- 
sion of Ohs! and Ahs! that are promptly 
suppressed by tunnels, or projecting crags. 

These Alpine passes give rise to a wind 
called the Fohn, a warm wind that blows 
down from the heights into the valleys. It 
was once supposed that this wind came all the 
way from the Desert of Sahara, but modern 
meteorology has at last explained the Fohn. 
It is a wind that falls from the heights into the 
valleys. It is sucked down to fill a vacuum, 
caused by light air pressures in the plains. It 
starts ice-cold above, it arrives hot from 

89 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

friction below. It can occur on both sides of 
the Alps, but it is more common on the north 
than the south. This warm wind is found not 
only in the Alps, but in every mountain chain, 
even on the west coast of Greenland, where a 
species of Fohn comes down from the ice- 
caps to the sea, as warm and dry as though 
from a desert of Africa. 

From Innsbruck to Brixen the scenery of 
the Brenner route is practically Alpine, with 
only Matrei and Sterzing to give the con- 
trast of country-town life. The names sprin- 
kled along the route are Raetian, Roman, and 
Teutonic in about equal parts, and they pro- 
vide the etymologists with an unsurpassed 
field for research, of which they have fully 
availed themselves. Great, for instance, are 
the possibilities in a name like Pflersch, with 
its seven consonants, and only one poor little 
vowel ! 

The train, in descending on the southern 
side of the Brenner, makes a magnificent 
sweep into the Pflerschthal. At the back of 
that valley the snow mountains of Stubai 
glisten alluringly. 

Such a name as Gossensass is worth some- 
thing to the tourist trade, — it sounds so quaint 
and cosy. Indeed, those visitors who know 

90 




STERZING 



Over the Brenner Pass 

a good thing when they hear it, flock to the 
village of that name in great numbers during 
the short season. The etymologists once 
derived Gossensass from Gothensitz, the 
" Seat of the Goths." They implied that 
Gossensass was the northernmost outpost of 
the Goths who came up the Brenner from 
Verona. But the latest news from the land of 
research would derive Gossensass from a cer- 
tain unknown Gozzo, and not from the Goths 
at all. 

The name of Sterzing also is now explained 
as a patronymic, built on the name of one 
Starzo as a base. 

The outskirts of Sterzing are so countrified, 
that one is not prepared to find the town itself 
so wonderfully ornate. Sterzing seems to have 
burst forth all over into arcades, balconies, 
and turrets. It has almost stood still for cen- 
turies, like the townlets along the valley of the 
Inn, at a time when streets were made narrow 
in order to lessen wall circumference, and 
houses considered it necessary to go a-bow- 
windowing and a-hanging-out-signs all the 
way down the vista. 

The Rathhaus stands on great arches, and 
is distinguished by two curious, polygonal 
bow windows. The so-called Jochelsthurm, 

9i 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

now used by the town magistrates, was once 
the seat of a rich family. It contains a re- 
markable Gothic ceiling, which was finished 
in 1469, but is still in excellent condition. 
The parish church deserves a visit, and almost 
in the centre of the town stands the so-called 
Zwolferthurm, the tower from which the 
noon hour is rung. 

These little places along the Brenner route 
had their heyday before the advent of the 
railroad, when heavy wagons and their drivers 
stopped early and often. Railroads have a 
way of emphasizing terminal points and 
junctions, and of reducing the importance of 
intermediate ones. So Sterzing has suffered 
along with the rest. But its principal source 
of income really failed long before the rail- 
road came, when the silver and iron mines of 
the neighbourhood were exhausted, for trans- 
portation and mining were the mainstay of 
Sterzing. To-day, a steady recuperation is 
manifest, which deserves the best wishes of 
all who love the Tyrol. 

Sterzing was the scene of the first serious 
battle of the war of 1809, when Andreas 
Hofer crossed the Jaufen from the Passeier- 
thal, and drove the Bavarians back over the 
Brenner. Farther down, too, at Mittewald 

92 




MITTEWALD AND PFLERSCH ON THE BRENNER ROUTE 



Over the Brenner Pass 

and the Sachsenklemme, the French and their 
Saxon allies lost terribly at the hands of the 
Tyrolese, all of which is set forth in the chap- 
ter on Andreas Hofer. 

Southward from Sterzing stretches a plain 
called the Sterzingermoos. It was once very 
marshy, but it has now been drained and re- 
claimed for tilling and pasture-lands, this 
enterprise being typical of the productive 
activity which modern conditions are bringing 
to the fore in the Tyrol. 

Before reaching Franzensfeste, the train 
passes through a heavily wooded defile, known 
as the Sachsenklemme, where many of the 
Saxon allies of Marshal Lefebre were over- 
whelmed or captured by the Tyrolese during 
the war of 1809. The village of Mittewald 
reposes here, peaceful amid sylvan scenes, 
the scent of the forests rising under the touch 
of a genial sun, and only a cannon-ball or two 
fixed over the door of an inn recalling other 
days of stress and war. 



93 



CENTRAL TYROL 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PUSTERTHAL 

The Pusterthal railroad connects the Tyrol 
with Carinthia and Styria, and thus also with 
Vienna. 

The Romans began the historic era in the 
Pusterthal itself. They built a road through 
the valley, because it was a great natural 
approach from east to west, from Aquileia to 
Augusta Vindelicorum. It was an Alpine 
artery, wherein they promptly caused mer- 
chandise and military power to flow. An 
important centre arose where Innichen now 
stands, called Aguntum. An ecclesiastic, 
Venantius Fortunatus, who, in 564, was on a 
pilgrimage from Ravenna to the tomb of St. 
Martin in Tours, mentions Aguntum as exist- 
ing in his day. 

At the end of the sixth century, the Roman 
power being in decay, a Slavonic invasion of 
the Pusterthal took place from the east, and 
a Teutonic one from the west. The two 

97 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

forces met on the highest ground in the Pus- 
terthal, on the great plateau of Toblach. 
For a time the Christian Bavarians were 
driven back by the heathen Wends, who 
destroyed Aguntum and Roman civilization. 
In later years, however, a line was estab- 
lished between the two races, at the brook of 
Amras. To the west of that the Christianized 
Bavarians held sway, and in 770 their Duke 
Tassilo founded a monastery at Innichen, 
where Aguntum had once stood, " in order," 
as he said, " to lead the unbelieving race of 
the Slavs in the way of the truth." 

That, in short, is the first item in the modern 
historical development of the Pusterthal. 

Franzensfeste lies at the point of contact 
between the Brenner and the Pusterthal. 
From the train it is possible to see much 
masonry of the fortification type. Forest-clad 
hills rise all around, dark and heavy with 
military secrets, for the strategic value of 
Franzensfeste seems evident even to a layman. 
As you stand on the station platform, turn 
northward and you face Germany, turn south- 
ward and you face Italy, turn westward, and 
Switzerland lies not far beyond the horizon, 
turn eastward, and Vienna is not many miles 
away. The Pusterthal is a wedge that pierces 

98 



The Pusterthal 

the geographical vitals of Austria, and Aus- 
tria has made arrangements to keep it in her 
own hands. 

The Maid of Spinges 

The Pusterthal had almost more than its 
fair share of trouble during the two invasions 
of the French, in 1797 and in 1809. It offered 
too tempting a passage. The very quality that 
gave it trade in time of peace also gave it 
trouble in time of war. In 1797 General 
Joubert was advancing up the Pusterthal to 
make connections with Napoleon, who was 
leaving Italy. Some of Joubert's troops met 
with stout opposition at a little village called 
Spinges, not far from Franzensfeste, on a hill 
to the left of the railroad. A few companies 
of the Tyrolese Landstrum, or militia, went 
forward to meet Joubert's soldiers. The latter 
pushed forward with bayonets. Then a cer- 
tain Anton Reinisch, of Volders, jumped in 
among the French with a long scythe, and 
succeeded in making an opening for his com- 
rades, through which they were able to pene- 
trate and break up the French formation. He 
himself fell under the many thrusts of the 
enemy. 

Doctor Steub has pointed out the resem- 
99 



LofC. 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

blance of this act to the more famous one of 
Winkelried. 

That same day there was fighting also 
around the churchyard of Spinges. A certain 
" Maid of Spinges " distinguished herself 
in defeating the assaults of the French. They 
attacked three times in vain, for this girl 
stood among the men on the wall, perform- 
ing prodigies with a hay-fork. It is not 
known who she was. She has been praised 
in song as " The Maid of Spinges," and in 
popular imagination her very anonymity has 
helped to make her the representative of the 
many women who fought and suffered in the 
Tyrol during the years of foreign invasion. 



B 



runea 



The railroad describes a wide curve of 
admiration in sight of the little castled town 
of Bruneck. The train turns aside, as a 
painter sidles off from his easel, with his head 
on one side, so as to obtain a better view of his 
work. 

Bruneck stands for a moment of the past, 
and for a hopeful future. It strikes the visit- 
or's attention as a quaint little provincial 
town of the mountains, and for that reason 

ioo 



The Pusterthal 

is doubly interesting to the dweller in the 
large cities of the plains. 

The castle still stands erect and martial, 
having dark pines for a background, upon a 
hill of green. From the tower, the view 
reaches far up the Taufererthal, and it em- 
braces wheat-fields, slopes of pasture-land, and 
forests, while above and beyond, the summits 
are crowned with snow, the whole forming 
a typical Tyrolese view. 

A battalion of sharpshooters is stationed in 
the castle, and the feudal effect is heightened, 
when a sudden blare of trumpets starts the 
lounging soldiers from the shady terraces. 

Bruneck was founded by a Prince Bishop 
of Brixen, Bruno, by name, who erected the 
castle on the hill, and called the result Bru- 
neck, in reminder of his own name. This 
was sometime between 1250 and 1256. 

The prince bishop attracted quite a flock 
of noblemen to Bruneck, who perched them- 
selves on the rocks around, and built castles 
of their own. 

The town presents a compact and solid 
front to the outside world, being completely 
walled in. Some gates lead into a long, single 
street, that runs through the interior. One 
is reminded of Sterzing, though there is more 

101 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

ornament there. Bruneck, on the other hand, 
is noticeable for its monster rain - pipes, 
painted red, with which every house is pro- 
vided. The rain-pipe starts above in the 
shape of a funnel, and comes down to the 
sidewalk in a blaze of red light. Line on 
line, the rain-pipes follow each other down 
the vista of the street. 

The Rienz, flowing close outside, against 
the walls, has made awful havoc more than 
once with the compact little town. As re- 
cently as 1882, the town experienced a week 
of terror. The mountain torrent became a 
vast stream, filled with Alpine refuse, that 
bore down everything it touched. Many 
houses and barns were swept away, and all 
but one of the bridges rode off on the back 
of the flood. 

Those who are interested in antiquarian 
researches will do well to ask permission to 
see some of Bruneck's private collections of 
paintings, weapons, coins, etc. The town 
archives also are said to be exceptionally full, 
the minutes of the Council being complete 
since the thirteenth century. 

Bruneck was for a while the home of the 
Tyrol's most noted poet, Hermann von Gilm, 
who was there in government service from 

102 



The Pusterthal 

1842 to 1845. He was born in Innsbruck in 
181 2, studied at the university there, and 
entered the employment of the state in the 
department of justice. He first wrote a cycle 
of songs called Mdrzenveilchen, and then in 
memory of Natters, a little village in the 
Mittelgebirge, near Innsbruck, he continued 
with another cycle, called Sommerfrische in 
Natters. 

In 1840, having been transferred to Schwaz, 
Hermann von Gilm wrote further cycles, 
entitled Theodolinde and Lieder eines Ver- 
schollenen. 

Then came three years at Bruneck, during 
which the Sophienlieder were produced. In 
1845 came a transfer to Rovereto, and in 1854, 
at Linz, we find him writing his last cycle of 
love-songs, the Rosaneum. 

But Hermann von Gilm's real fame does 
not rest on his love-songs. He was, for a time, 
the real voice of the Tyrol, the interpreter of 
its inspirations. His Schutzenlieder, begun 
in Bruneck, and finished in Rovereto, 
throbbed so loudly with fresh Alpine exhila- 
ration that the heart of the Tyrol responded 
and beat in unison. These songs, very Teu- 
tonic, very heroic and hopeful, stirred the 



103 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

silent peasants to a tremendous pitch of 
patriotism. 

The poet took part in the revolutionary 
movements of 1848 at Vienna, but he died at 
Linz in 1864, and his remains now lie in 
Innsbruck. 

His work and words are remembered with 
much love by his compatriots, and his name 
has been duly honoured by the placing of 
his bust on the house where he was born in 
the Maria Theresienstrasse at Innsbruck. 

The Tharer Wirth 

After Bruneck, comes the village of Olang. 
If the unnamed " Maid of Spinges " is the 
heroine of the French occupation of 1797 in 
the Pusterthal, the son of an innkeeper at 
Mitterolang is the martyr of that of 1809. 
His name was Peter Sigmaier, and he was 
known as the Tharer Wirth. The French 
General Broussier was particularly active 
in capturing the peasants, whose only crime it 
was that they were fighting for their native 
soil. 

One of his drag-net orders brought in an 
old man, whose son was active in the Tyrolese 
cause. The order was given that, if the son 

104 



The Pusterthal 

did not present himself within three days, the 
father was to fall by proxy. But the son, 
rather than sacrifice his father, promptly 
presented himself. His filial conduct raised 
hopes that Broussier would relent, and the 
son's young wife pleaded strongly for his life, 
but Broussier hardened his heart, and the son 
of the Tharer Wirth went to his death. Franz 
von Defregger has, within a few years, 
painted a picture, which hangs in the Ferdi- 
nandeum at Innsbruck, commemorating this 
martyrdom. 

Joachim Haspinger (1776 - 1 858) 

Northward from Welsberg in the Puster- 
thal lies the Gsieserthal, where Joachim Has- 
pinger was born, the third in the great 
triumvirate of 1809. The hamlet of St. Mar- 
tin was his birthplace, and 1776 the year 
of his birth, the very year of the American 
Declaration of Independence. His parents 
were poor peasants. He took part in the 
struggle of 1797 against the French, probably 
fighting at Spinges. Certain it is that he re- 
ceived a silver medal for his bravery at that 
time. Then, in 1802, he entered the Capuchin 
Monastery at Klausen. When the war of 

105 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

1809 broke over the Tyrol, Haspinger at 
once joined the native troops as chaplain. 
But Andreas Hofer instead gave him a com- 
mand, which he inspired with his fiery zeal, 
and led with success. After the defeat of 
the Tyrolese cause, he escaped through 
Switzerland to Milan and Vienna, disguised 
as a Handwerksbursche , or journeyman ap- 
prentice. 

The last years of his life were spent quietly 
as parish priest of Hietzing, near Vienna. 
The emperor had presented him with this 
office. In 1848 he reappeared for a while in 
Innsbruck as the chaplain of a company of 
students, commanded by Adolf Pichler. A 
brilliant reception was given him in the Tyrol 
at that time. 

His body lies beside those of Hofer and 
Speckbacher, in the Hofkirche at Innsbruck. 

To black 

The Pusterthal is unique in that two streams 
rise in it, the Rienz and the Drau, and flow 
in opposite directions. The watershed be- 
tween the two is at Toblach. The Rienz flows 
into the Adige and the Adriatic, the Drau into 
the Danube and the Black Sea. 

106 



The Pusterthal 

Toblach is a favourite gateway to the en- 
chanted region of the Dolomites. There is 
a village of that name in the plain, but the 
principal hotels cluster about near the rail- 
road. 

At Toblach the Pusterthal presents an 
interesting contrast. The northern side of the 
valley is Teutonic to a " t," with greens in the 
usual gradations, starting from cultivated 
fields below and mounting through pine for- 
ests and pastures to a smooth sky-line above. 
The southern side of the valley, however, is 
the romance side, where the Dolomites stand 
guard, gray and soft in colour, sheer and 
shorn in shape, with their bases enveloped in 
rich, luxuriant fir-trees. 

Herein lies the chief charm of Toblach, 
in this contrast between its workaday Pus- 
terthal side and its artistic Dolomite aspect, 
so that Toblach has two strings to its bow. 

On moonlight nights, when the Ampezzo 
valley, back of Toblach, is flooded with a 
shower of gold, and Monte Cristallo gleams 
above the black forests, the full fantasy of the 
scene becomes apparent. There is much 
peace in the soft touch of the air on such 
nights, and the woodland smells come fresh 
and pure to the nostrils. 

107 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

There is a forest of larch-trees running all 
the way to Innichen, so that you can walk 
for about an hour under its delicate tracery, 
with eyes turned up to the lace of the branches 
above. I had almost said that this forest path 
alone was worth the journey to Toblach. 

Innichen 

Most of the towns and villages situated in 
the zone between Teutonic and Romance 
Tyrol have double names. To people coming 
from the south, they assume Italian disguises, 
to those coming from the north, they turn 
their German side.' 

Even places which are quite within the 
racial pale use convenient aliases, according 
to their needs. Hence it happens that Bozen 
is also Bolzano; Trento, Trient; Brixen, 
Bressanone, and Innichen, San Candido. 

The name of Innichen was originally Agun- 
tica, then it became Intica, and finally Inni- 
chen. The Italian name of San Candido, 
however, is due to the fact that when the 
Bavarian Duke Tassilo founded the monas- 
tery there, he dedicated it to a St. Can- 
didus. 

The monastery church in Romanesque 
1 08 



The Pusterthal 

style shows its great age, dating from the 
thirteenth century. It is one of the most re- 
markable buildings in Teutonic Tyrol, with 
its half-vanished frescoes, and its little-under- 
stood carvings of centaurs, unicorns, and 
other imaginary beings. 

There is also a little sunken chapel, built in 
imitation of the Holy Sepulchre. A native of 
Innichen once made a pilgrimage to Jeru- 
salem, and on his return, had this chapel built. 
You go down a few steps into a species of 
crypt, and there, in an inner chapel, is the 
imitation of the sepulchre itself. 

During the season there is much animation 
at Innichen. It is a favourite resting-place 
for people who are going up the Sextenthal, 
to the fashionable Wildbad, much favoured 
by the Viennese; to the Fischeleinboden, 
among the great Kofel and Spitzen of the 
Sexten Dolomites; or, perhaps, over the easy 
Kreuzberg Pass into Italy. The Dreischus- 
terspitze, which belongs to the Sexten Dolo- 
mites, dominates Innichen with the majesty 
of its presence. 

Lienz 

Lienz is the jumping-off town in the Tyrol, 
toward the east. Beyond it lies Carinthia, 

109 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

and a pronounced Slavonic element then 
makes itself noticeable in the population. 
There happened to be a cattle market there 
the day I arrived. The place was full of 
peasants from remote valleys; some of the 
men even wore green trousers, or let their hair 
grow long, and most of the women clung to 
their extraordinary peaked hats. These are 
of black felt, with broad, stiff brims. The 
crown rises as though to end in a peak; then 
it seems to reconsider this intention, and ends 
in sort of a plateau. These hats are cut off 
at the apex of their ambition. Dr. Henry Van 
Dyke, in his search for " Little Rivers," once 
strayed into Lienz. He says of this hat: " It 
looks a little like the traditional head-gear 
of the Pilgrim Fathers, exaggerated. There 
is a solemnity about it which is fatal to fem- 
inine beauty." 

The place itself is not exactly a summer 
resort. It has a life of its own which circu- 
lates in front of the Lieburg, a long building 
with two towers, used by the district authori- 
ties. Here, too, the Stellwagen starts for 
Windisch-Matrei, and for the pure-white 
glories of the Gross Venediger and the Gross 
Glockner. 



no 



The Pusterthal 

Windisch-Matrei 

There is a Deutsch-Matrei on the Brenner 
route, but there is also a Windisch-Matrei, a 
Matrei of the Wends, north of Lienz. The 
latter is the chief village of the Iselthal, and it 
has been a little centre of civilization in the 
Alps for centuries, but during all its history 
it has constantly been threatened with de- 
struction by a torrent which tears down from 
the Bretterwand on the east. The village has 
long since entrenched itself behind huge stone 
dams, but these do not always avail to avert 
the fury of the elements. In 1895, the torrent 
swept great masses of earth and rubble upon 
the fields, and buried them apparently beyond 
recovery, and since then the place has also 
been visited by a fire. 

During a debate in the Tyrolese Diet at 
Innsbruck, in the session of 1899, the continua- 
tion of Windisch-Matrei upon its present site 
was even considered to be problematical. A 
plan was proposed to transfer the village to 
a safer site near by, and a subvention was 
offered by the Diet for that purpose, but the 
church, the school, and twenty other build- 
ings, spared by the flames, still act as a centre 
of attraction for the population, and the centre 

in 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

of the village is not likely to be shifted so 
easily. In the meantime we can wish Matrei 
safety and prosperity in the continuation of 
its task as an abode for men at the foot of the 
mountain ridges and snow peaks of the great 
Tauern range. 



112 



CHAPTER XIII 

FRANZ VON DEFREGGER: PAINTER OF THE 
PEOPLE 

Painting is perhaps somewhat of a rare 
accomplishment among Alpine peoples. 
Technical training, such as is required even 
by a beginner, is difficult to obtain; besides, 
paints, brushes, and canvas are expensive, — 
a serious, and sometimes a final consideration, 
among mountaineers. 

As a matter of fact, the art impulse in 
the Alps generally turns to wood-carving. 
Every mountaineer has a knife in his pocket, 
and plenty of time on his hands, while he is 
tending the cattle in the uplands, or during 
long winter evenings. Nor is there any lack 
of wood to be had for the cutting. 

It is doubtful, therefore, whether De- 
fregger would ever have had a chance to 
paint those delightful pictures of Tyrolese life 
and history, had not his father been a man 
of some means. 

ii3 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The painter was born on April 30, 1835, 
on the family farm, called the Ederhof, in 
the parish of Dolsach, near Lienz, in the Pus- 
terthal. Up to the age of fifteen, he herded 
his father's cattle and horses on the mountain 
pastures. During spare moments he amused 
himself by drawing and carving animals, 
according to the abundance of models con- 
stantly before him. 

Thus early did he begin to sharpen his 
powers of observation, and to acquire that 
prodigious memory for form, which has 
always distinguished him. His talent does 
not seem to have been inherited, but to have 
asserted itself spontaneously, under favouring 
conditions. He was thrown from infancy into 
close contact with the life of all outdoors, 
and beauties of outline and colour. 

At all events, the boy's artistic progress was 
not retarded by any sordid struggle for exist- 
ence. 

After his father's death, Defregger sold the 
Ederhof, and, with the proceeds, sallied forth 
into the world, to become a painter. Surely 
no youth ever chose his life-work with less 
hesitation. 

First, he studied drawing in Innsbruck 
under Stolz, a teacher in the Realschule; 

114 



Franz von Defregger 

thence he passed to the School of Technical 
Arts in Munich, spent some time in a studio 
there, and, in 1867, eventually came under 
the famous Piloty at the Academy in that 
city. 

There was a short interval of diligent prep- 
aration in Paris; then, in 1868, Defregger 
exhibited his first work in Munich, — that 
genial historical painting, called " Speck- 
bacher and His Son Anderl." 

The subject is simplicity itself. 

Joseph Speckbacher, one of the leaders in 
the heroic but ill-fated insurrection of 1809, 
has been sitting at a table in consultation with 
his fellow patriots. In the picture he is seen 
standing erect and astonished, while a griz- 
zled old soldier, his arm around little Anderl, 
leads the boy forward toward his father. A 
detachment of native troops is seen in the 
doorway; a motherly old woman looks on 
with folded hands; Speckbacher's fellow 
councillors crane their necks to get a better 
glimpse. 

That is really all there is to the picture, and 
yet what depth of feeling is expressed! 

Anderl, we must know, has raised this de- 
tachment himself, to help his father, and, 
moreover, the brave little fellow has been 

ii5 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

caught searching for bullets, fired by the 
enemy, that they might be used a second time. 
Hence, Speckbacher's expression of pride and 
wonder, the broad grin of the veteran, and 
Anderl's clear, happy, upward look into his 
father's face. 

In this picture Defregger at once revealed 
those qualities which were to endear him to 
men and women the world over. 

First of all, his ability to tell a story, to 
dignify the simplest sort of a situation. No 
matter whether the canvas be large or small, 
the figures few or numerous, every object falls 
into its place, and is handled with consummate 
skill, to emphasize the predominant thought. 
Each person betrays in face and attitude his or 
her special point of view toward the central 
character. 

But many an artist can do this successfully, 
and yet leave the heart cold. 

Now, it is one of the most noticeable 
achievements of Defregger, that he is always 
tugging at our heart-strings. His optimism 
is irresistible; he is all wholesomeness, vi- 
tality, joyous exuberance. His power of 
depicting happiness has never been surpassed. 
Especially is he past master of smiling faces. 
Surely, nothing in art can be more full of glee 

116 



Franz von Defregger 

than some of his girls' faces, or more whole- 
hearted than his men! 

i\l though Defregger opened his career with 
an historical picture, he did not at once con- 
tinue in this vein. 

Being stricken with illness in 1871, he re- 
turned to his native mountains in order to 
recuperate, and there began to paint the 
people he saw about him. 

Defregger's pictures can be divided into 
certain natural groups, according to subjects, 
and it is more satisfactory to consider them 
in this manner than in chronological order. 

A true genre picture, for instance, is the 
" Faustschieber " (literally Fist-shove rs). 

The Tyrolese are so fond of athletic con- 
tests, that they have invented a test of strength, 
even when they are sitting down. Two men 
will double up their fists, and try to push each 
other's arms off the table. Sometimes they 
shoot out their right hands, and hook each 
other by the middle finger. The object then 
is to pull your adversary over the table, and 
on to the floor on the other side. This game 
is called Fingerhanggl'n. 

In this picture, Defregger's astounding 
faculty for expressing thought by the position 



117 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

of the body, the within by the without, is 
once again demonstrated. 

Not only is this true of the contestants them- 
selves, who are straining every nerve, but also 
of the spectators, whose feelings are brought 
out by different expressions and attitudes. 
The group at the main table are intensely 
interested and alert, but some men at a side- 
table are talking unconcernedly, and a little 
girl, with her back turned, seems absorbed in 
her knitting, as though she was trying to pick 
up a stitch which she had just dropped. 

It is characteristic, too, of Defregger that 
he should make the most telling use of all 
accessories in the way of costumes and furni- 
ture, to produce the illusion of reality. A 
splendid touch is provided by the dog of one 
of the contestants, which has jumped up in the 
excitement at seeing its master's exertions, and 
is trying to restrain him by a friendly paw 
on his thigh. Hardly a single picture of 
Defregger but contains a dog or two! Es- 
pecially do his Dachshundchen waddle their 
way into our affections. 

As a further masterly portrayal of peasant 
life, take the " Ankunft auf dem Tanzboden " 
(Arrival on the Dancing-floor). 

A Tyrolese wedding is said to be the most 
118 



Franz von Defregger 

rollicking sort of an affair imaginable. The 
guests often arrive the day before the mar- 
riage ceremony is to take place, and they begin 
to dance at once, generally in the big room 
of the local inn. 

The key-note of this picture is youthful and 
jovial exuberance. A young fellow, who can 
no longer contain himself for joy, has jumped 
up from where he was, and is cutting all man- 
ner of capers, to welcome two delightful girls 
who walk in, arm in arm, smiling with gleam- 
ing teeth and dimpled mouths. Indeed, 
everybody is smiling the real Defregger smile 
in this picture. It is contagious, for you find 
yourself doing the same, as you look on. 
What a sweep of fine feathers and broad 
brimmed hats there is, and what enormous 
shoes are there to pound the floor in the 
rhythm of the dance! 

Defregger has treated the dance in another 
picture, called " Ball auf der Aim " (The 
Ball on the Aim, or Summer Pasture). In 
this case an old hunter is dancing with a girl, 
while a company of young people are looking 
on, much amused. 

Outside of his war pictures, which are 
naturally of a serious nature, the painter has 
for the most part chosen happy, often humour- 

119 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

ous, subjects. Only once did he attempt a 
tragic scene, and that was toward the be- 
ginning of his career, when he painted 
" Der Verwundete Jager" (The Wounded 
Hunter). 

In the " Jager in der Almhutte " (Hunt- 
ers in the Hut on the Aim), we find a party 
of hunters, filing out of an Alpine chalet. 
One of the party is taking leave of the girl in 
charge. The atmosphere is one of great 
friendliness. 

Among the most successful pictures of this 
type must be counted " Der Zitherspieler " 
(The Zither-player). A young man, of 
massive, superb build, sits in a hut, playing the 
zither. The instrument lies across his knees. 
Two of Defregger's typical girls are listening 
at his side. 

One would say that the softening and re- 
fining influence of music upon these rugged 
Alpine people was the thought which the 
artist wished to suggest. This impression is 
heightened by the contrast between the 
player's huge, iron-shod shoes, rough stock- 
ings, bare knees, and the delicate, loving touch 
of his hands upon the strings. One can almost 
hear the click of the ring on his thumb, and 
the long-drawn, metallic singing of the zither. 

1 20 




THE ZITHER- PLAYER 
(From painting by Franz von Defregger) 



Franz von Defregger 

Even the Dachshundchen at his master's feet 
seems to be subdued, and made thoughtful, by 
the music. 

The same theme of the zither is less impres- 
sively treated in a picture called " Auf der 
Aim" (On the Summer Pasture), and 
painted a few years before. This time it is 
a girl playing to her friend and two small 
boys. 

Defregger has been reproached for appear- 
ing to consider the commonest occurrences in 
daily life worthy of his brush ; for taking the 
trouble to depict trivial, domestic happenings; 
but it would seem that the painter has been at 
his best whenever he has simplified his situa- 
tions, and though his historical pictures may 
live among his countrymen, and deservedly, 
too, on account of the interest of their subject- 
matter, yet his genre pictures of the inti- 
mate, homely sort are more likely to deter- 
mine his position in the great world of art 
outside. 

Defregger's list of genre pictures is a long 
one, but the more local he is, and the truer 
to the Tyrol, the more he seems to reflect 
human nature at large. 

His " Brautwerbung" (Making the 
Match), for instance, is an exceptionally 

121 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

fine piece of story-telling, but it leaves little 
room for the imagination. 

A father and son have called, to ask for the 
hand of the eldest daughter of the house. The 
old man is full of genial importance; the 
lover, a callow youth, stands awkwardly be- 
hind, holding a bouquet to his belt. The 
mother has risen to greet the guests. She is 
all friendliness. The chosen girl, in the 
shelter of her mother's broad back, smiles 
knowingly at her younger sisters. There is 
also a grandmother present, and the acces- 
sories are all designed to fall into the obvious 
situation. 

" Der Urlauber" (On Leave of Absence), 
and " Kriegsgeschichten " (War Stories), are 
somewhat alike. 

In the first, we find a young soldier in the 
bosom of his family. Every expression and 
attitude of the various members speak of joy 
at his home-coming, down to the little brother, 
who reaches up to play with the shining brass 
buttons of the uniform. 

In the second picture, the soldier's youthful 
face looks lean and worn, as though he had 
seen hard service. He wears two medals on 
his breast, and his listeners are hanging on his 
lips. 

122 



Franz von Defregger 

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the uni- 
form of the Austrian private does not lend 
itself as readily to artistic effects as the pictur- 
esque costumes of the Tyrolese. 

In " Die Heimkehr " (The Home-com- 
ing), a hunter, on his return, lifts his young- 
est child from its mother's arms, while a little 
girl begs to be taken up also. 

As for children, he shows them to us with 
loving solicitude at all ages, from their first 
arrival to their adolescence. 

"Der Besuch" (The Visit), and " Der 
Erstgeborene " (The First-born), are scenes 
laid in that part of the Tyrol where, until 
recently, women still wore tall hats, like the 
modern silk hat of civilization. In both 
cases a young mother is showing her wonder- 
ful baby to appreciative friends. 

Those blessed little things in " Das Tisch- 
gebet " (Saying Grace), how the heart ex- 
pands to take them all in; from the eldest 
girl, just in her teens, to the smallest urchin, 
whom grandmamma is teaching to fold his 
hands! 

"Das Erste Pfeiferl " (The First Little 
Pipe) is remarkable for the exquisite beauty 
of the mother, who stops for a moment in 



123 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

her knitting, while the father amuses their 
sturdy little boy with his empty pipe. 

Some of these children's pictures have small 
artistic merit, but they are all suffused with 
a loving spirit. 

There is quite a group of Defregger works 
which may be called his tourist pictures, i. e., 
they deal with the tourists, as they are brought 
in contact with native life, the two elements 
acting and reacting upon each other. 

They generally betray a gentle satiric touch, 
especially that best known one of this class, 
" Der Salontiroler " (The Parlour Tyrolese, 
or, as we might say out West, The Tender- 
foot) . 

In its way, this work is inimitable. A city- 
bred tourist, in brand-new Tyrolese toggery; 
two giggling peasant girls on the bench at his 
side; half a dozen men looking on; those are 
the figures for the tableau. One sees at once 
that the girls are making fun of the tourist, 
and that he does not know what to do about 
it. The spectators are, of course, immensely 
amused, but the victim is too conceited, and 
too obtuse, to realize his situation. Much 
skill has been shown in conveying the gist 
of the joke. 

A word should be said about his portraits, 
124 



Franz von Defregger 

which are unmatched for certain vivid, life- 
like qualities. He has painted many girls' 
heads and half-lengths. Into these he has 
crowded his sense of beauty, and wholesome 
loveliness. They are so fresh, these young 
creatures, bubbling over with the joy of living, 
and so thoroughly harmonious in expression 
and pose. 

One of his best men's portraits is " Franzl," 
the perfect embodiment of a Teutonic Tyro- 
lese, with his fair, curly hair, his pipe in his 
mouth, his white teeth, and sanguine, sturdy 
temperament. 

Of course Defregger has idealized his 
models. The Tyrolese are not a surpassingly 
handsome race. Divested of their pictur- 
esque costumes and glorious surroundings, 
they might possibly become uninteresting and 
commonplace. But the fact remains, that in 
travelling through the country one is often 
tempted to exclaim: "That was a real De- 
fregger type!" 

When Defregger returned to his native 
country, in his days of physical suffering, he 
painted a Holy Family for the altar of the 
parish church of Dolsach, and latterly he has 
given the world another Madonna of singular 
beauty, wherein human loveliness, such as we 

125 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

recognize in his portraits of women, is exalted 
and spiritualized. 

The patriotic side of his nature is empha- 
sized by the great historical canvases, devoted 
to Andreas Hofer and the war of 1809. In 
less than a dozen paintings, he has set forth 
the national struggle, from the first call to 
arms, to the final heroic act of the peasant- 
commander, striding firmly to his martyrdom. 
These pictures, or copies of them, are to be 
found in the Ferdinandeum, at Innsbruck, but 
for a running commentary and text I beg the 
reader to turn to my chapter on " Andreas 
Hofer." 

Take it all in all, Defregger has deserved 
well of his country, as in turn he has made the 
most of the material which the Tyrol could 
offer an appreciator and delineator of beauty. 
Defregger has had many successors in the 
same field, and perhaps some imitators, but 
within his own circle he is master. His art 
is buoyant and young, a fact which certainly 
gives it long life, and ensures permanency for 
that which is true and good in his work. The 
Defregger smile has already taken its place 
in art, and has come to stay. Its beneficent 
and benevolent contagion has gone around 



126 



Franz von Defregger 

the world. Defregger's kindliness, his sturdi- 
ness and gaiety, have won the hearts of men 
and women in many lands, and endeared him 
to a grateful and faithful host of friends. 



127 



CHAPTER XIV 

BRIXEN 

This little town forms an ideal resting- 
place for visitors to the Tyrol who have been 
doing the mountains to the north, or travelling 
among the attractions to the south. Although 
Brixen has a population of only five thousand 
inhabitants, with a garrison of possibly five 
hundred men, yet it shelters a surprising num- 
ber of establishments, namely, a cathedral, an 
episcopal palace, twelve churches, five monas- 
teries, an episcopal seminary, an imperial 
gymnasium, a girls' boarding-school, a public 
school, two printing establishments, and even 
a hydropathic establishment. All these are 
maintained in this alpine town, which is only 
a little larger than a good-sized village, and is 
surrounded by the usual green slopes, forests, 
and cultivated fields of the Tyrol. 

In the town proper we find the interesting 
narrow streets, bulging upper stories, and 
peaked roofs of quaint mediaeval structures, 

128 



Brixen 

while the crenelations and projections upon 
the houses deserve the attention of wayfaring 
artists. 

The name of Brixen is derived from 
Prichsna, a royal estate which Ludwig the 
Child gave to the bishops of Saben (above 
Klausen), in 901. In 1179 the bishops of 
Brixen became prince bishops of the German 
Empire, and their see a principality. At 
present Brixen no longer possesses an inde- 
pendent sovereignty, and the jurisdiction of 
its bishops is solely ecclesiastical. 

Fallmerayer, the Fragmentist (iJQO - l86l) 

Philipp Jacob Fallmerayer, commonly 
called the Fragmentist, was born in Tschotsch, 
a village perched southward from Brixen 
above the valley of the Eisack. 

His father was a poor labourer, but the boy 
was able to attend the cathedral school of 
Brixen, where he received his first instruction 
in Greek. When nineteen, he went to Salz- 
burg, and continued to study there, giving 
lessons, the meantime, in order to make a 
living. He was at Landshut, when the great 
War of Liberation, undertaken by the allies 
against Napoleon, called him to take up arms. 

129 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

He took part in the campaign against Paris, 
during the winter of 1813 - 14. After the 
second Peace of Paris, in 18 15, he was sta- 
tioned for half a year near Orleans, in a castle 
inhabited by a marquis with his wife and 
several relatives. In later years he was wont 
to refer to this period with special gratitude, 
as having turned him from a peasant of the 
Tyrol into a man of the world. His French 
accent ever after remained the admiration of 
those who knew him. 

He remained in the army as lieutenant until 
1 8 18, then resigned, and returned once more 
to teaching, filling places in Augsburg and 
Landshut. In his hours of leisure, he studied 
modern Greek, Persian, and Turkish, with 
special enthusiasm, and when the Academy of 
Copenhagen offered a prize for the best his- 
tory of the Empire of Trapezunt, on the 
Black Sea, he at once went to work on original 
manuscripts in Vienna and Venice, and pro- 
duced a work which received the prize, and 
was crowned by the academy. 

His second work was a History of the 
Peninsula of Morea during the Middle Ages. 
In it he developed the idea that the modern 
Greeks were in reality of Slavic origin. 

It was in 1831 that a seeming accident 
130 



Brixen 

brought him in contact with a Russian, Count 
Ostermann-Tolstoi, who desired to make a 
trip to the East, and was looking for a suitable 
companion. The count invited Fallmerayer 
to accompany him; the latter accepted joy- 
fully, and the two started promptly for Egypt. 

They journeyed up the Nile, then returned 
and passed into Syria and Palestine, over to 
Cyprus and Rhodes, and up the coast of Ionia 
to Constantinople. Here the historian wel- 
comed the opportunity to practise what he 
knew of Turkish. He used to chat by the hour 
to chance acquaintances in the coffee-houses 
along the Bosphorus, delighted with every 
new word, or turn of speech, which he could 
add to his store of knowledge. 

Turkish, ever after, remained his favourite 
among the many languages which he spoke. 
In order to secure Fallmerayer's attention, 
it was only necessary to ask him some question 
concerning Turkish grammar or pronuncia- 
tion. He would then sit down and talk of the 
East by the hour. 

From Constantinople the travellers passed 
through the Cyclades to Athens, through 
Greece, and back by Naples. At this point 
the travelling companions parted, but Fall- 
merayer soon renewed his peripatetic studies, 

131 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

taking short trips to Italy, into Southern 
France, or to Paris, and spending the winter 
of 1839-40 in Geneva, with his former 
travelling companion, Count Ostermann- 
Tolstoi. 

Then the spell of the East drew him once 
more to the Black Sea, to Trapezunt. On his 
way back he hobnobbed again at Constanti- 
nople with his long-bearded acquaintances of 
the Bosphorus cofTee-houses. On Mount 
Athos he lived with the monks, in Athens he 
disputed with the learned Greeks concerning 
their historical origin, and on his return to 
Brixen in 1842, he was welcomed and ban- 
queted by the prince bishop himself. 

During the next few years he made Munich 
his headquarters, and began to publish articles 
in the Allgemeine Zeitung concerning his 
travels and historical studies in the East. 
Then came his " Fragmente aus dem Orient," 
which gave him his name of " The Frag- 
mentist." The introduction to this last work 
was full of radical utterances, which greatly 
stirred German thought during the revolu- 
tionary years before 1848. In fact, Fall- 
merayer was elected to a seat in the National 
Assembly at Frankfurt. He belonged to the 
so-called left centre of the Assembly, which 

132 



Brixen 

insisted upon the unconditional subordina- 
tion of the separate states to a central mon- 
archy. But he made no speeches, and had 
little taste for constructive political work, 
though he stuck to his post to the end. 

When the National Assembly at Frankfurt 
broke up in 1849, Fallmerayer joined a few 
representatives in continuing the so-called 
Rump-Parliament in Stuttgart, until that, too, 
had been dissolved. Then he passed over 
the frontier into Switzerland, to St. Gallen. 

A decree of amnesty, issued in 1850, per- 
mitted him to return to Munich, where he 
lived on quietly until his death in 1861, a 
notable scholar, who had enriched the his- 
torical knowledge of his day, a critic rather 
than a creator in literature and politics. 



133 



CHAPTER XV 

THE GRODEN VALLEY 
Toy Town and Toy Land 

ABOUT midway between Franzensfeste and 
Bozen, a narrow, gorgelike valley opens un- 
expectedly toward the east. A carriage-road 
starts from the station of Waidbruck, passes 
through a toll-gate under the shadow of the 
superb castle of Trostburg, and penetrates the 
rocky defile of the Grodnerthal. It leads in 
three hours to St. Ulrich, the capital of Toy- 
land, where lives a race of mountaineers, 
whom time and trade have transformed into 
artists and artisans. 

Ever since the late Amelia B. Edwards 
passed through this valley, some years ago, 
and described its curious industry in her 
delightful book, " Untrodden Peaks and Un- 
frequented Valleys, " English-speaking tour- 
ists have found their way to St. Ulrich in 
increasing numbers. 

134 



The Grbden Valley 

After its long climb, the Stellwagen sud- 
denly turns a corner, and Toy Town spreads 
its stately white houses on the green floor of 
the valley, while the overpowering Langkofel 
stretches a tower of blank rock straight into 
the sky. 

St. Ulrich looks not unlike one of those 
Swiss industrial villages, of which there are 
many off the beaten track of tourist travel. 
Neatness is paramount. Many houses have 
their windows decorated with flowers, from 
ground to garret. There are plenty of hotels, 
and even private houses where rooms may be 
had, and so scrupulously clean are such 
rooms, that they literally must force the care- 
less to contract good habits of order. There 
are even quite pretentious villas in this Alpine 
environment. In contrast to the almost citi- 
fied aspect of some of the houses, brown 
barns are freely sprinkled about, built in a 
manner peculiar to the valley, namely, with 
galleries running completely around, some- 
times two and three stories high, where bun- 
dles of grain hang to dry, and the carvers 
expose their wood to weather. 

St. Ulrich, and neighbouring villages of 
the Grodnerthal, send a great supply of toys 



135 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

and images of saints to various parts of the 
world. 

Some of the largest houses in the village are 
used to store these local products, the Purger 
establishment being perhaps the largest and 
best known. Upon entering, you find long 
shelves full of playthings in packages, vast 
rooms lined with these shelves; whole floors, 
for example, teeming with jointed dolls, 
measuring anywhere from half an inch to 
twenty-four inches in length, and costing 
from two kreuzers to three florins the dozen. 
There are piles of horses, painted brown, 
gray, or yellow, spotted horses, and horses 
with curious conventional black lines on their 
backs, such as no real horse ever ventured to 
possess. Other animals are there in full force, 
destined to go into Noah's arks. Certain firms 
make a specialty of little wagons, others of 
monkeys climbing sticks. Almost the whole 
population of the valley, men, women, and 
children, are engaged in carving these toys, 
doing their work with incredible deftness, and 
by a system of minute subdivision of labour. 
One family, by tradition and heredity alike, 
is devoted to dolls, another to horses, or to cats 
and dogs, camels and elephants, or possibly 
to Noah's arks. It is astonishing to see with 

136 



The Groden Valley 

what rapid skill the characteristics of a maned 
lion, a sneaking fox, or a fetching poodle, will 
be whittled out of a square piece of wood. 
The products of this work, of course, have 
become mechanical and stereotyped in ap- 
pearance. Although certain simple con- 
trivances are now used for the manufacture 
of dolls, the animals are still entirely carved 
by hand. Figurines, wearing different Tyro- 
lese costumes, require special care, and show a 
considerable advance in artistic treatment 
over the mere toys. 

It is no unusual sight to see an old woman, 
tending her cows on the slope, and whittling 
the while, as in another valley she would 
probably be knitting a stocking. At the end 
of the week some member of the family gener- 
ally carries the result of the week's labour to 
the great storehouse of the firm which controls 
the family output. 

On a much higher artistic plane than this 
wholesale manufacturing of toys, stands the 
carving of images of saints, of altars, and other 
ecclesiastical fixtures. This work is done in 
regular studios. 

The Grodnerthal carving industry started 
from small beginnings. As long ago as the 
seventeenth century a certain amount of carv- 

137 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

ing was done in the valley; the statues of a 
Dominic Winatzer, for example, marked 
1682, show considerable skill; but Johann de 
Metz, in 1703, seems to have been the man 
to give a decisive impetus to the development 
of carving. Beginning with picture-frames, 
he gradually added crucifixes, saints, and 
toys. In course of time, peddlers from the 
Grodnerthal wandered over the whole of 
Europe with their wares, even crossing the 
ocean to America. Many of them settled in 
foreign countries, where they became agents 
and middlemen for the thriving home in- 
dustry; many of them also returned in their 
old age and in affluence to their native valley, 
where they built the substantial white man- 
sions which one admires to-day. 

At the present time, the carver no longer 
carries his own products into the cities for 
sale, but delivers them to one of the large 
local firms, which deal with the outside world. 

The only wood used for the toys and saints 
was originally the pinus cembra, which grew 
abundantly on the slopes of the Grodnerthal. 
It is a wood which is peculiarly adapted for 
carving. But now that a great part of these 
forests have been whittled away, or have gone 
into the wide, wide world, disguised as dolls 

138 



The Grbden Valley 

and horses, only the more expensive products 
are made of pinus cembra, while the frivolous 
toys have to be satisfied with inferior woods. 
To-day there seems to be no immediate danger 
of the extinction of the pinus cembra, for a 
great part of the needed supply comes from 
the neighbouring valleys. 

An imperial school of drawing and model- 
ling has been established in the Grodnerthal, 
as well as a permanent exhibition. Many 
young men also take a few years in Munich 
or Vienna to work in the studios of well- 
known masters. 

As far as toys are concerned, they have 
hardly changed in several generations. As 
the father worked, so does the son; as the 
mother, so the daughter of the Grodnerthal. 
It is likely that the horses will continue to 
wear those unnatural black lines on their 
backs, and to indulge in the same impossible 
spots for generations to come. 

The Seiser Alp 

About two hours' climb from St. Ulrich 
brings you to a grassy, undulating upland, the 
Seiser Alp, the largest haying plateau in the 
Tyrol. It is dotted with more than four hun- 

*39 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

dred brown barns, and almost as many cook- 
ing sheds; here and there its green stretches 
are broken by black groves of pine ; there is 
the murmured gurgle of hidden brooks; the 
air thrills with exuberance; the blue sky is 
above, and the giant Dolomites, the Schlern, 
the Rosszahne, the Plattkofel, the Langkofel, 
the Geislerspitzen, etc., rear their strange 
shapes all around, standing guard. A short 
climb to the top of the Puflatsch will reveal 
still greater distances. 

Here most of the young people of the Grod- 
nerthal and neighbouring districts spend a 
week or two by turns during haying time. It 
is their summer holiday. They work under 
the brilliant sun in long rows; they eat five 
times a day, picnic-fashion, in jolly groups 
on the fragrant ground; and at night they 
sleep on the new-mown hay in the barns, while 
outside the vast billows of the alp darken and 
dampen with the dew. When all the slopes 
and level stretches of the Seiser Alp are bare, 
they descend in troops, dressed in their very 
best, each mower wearing in his hat a bunch 
of mountain pinks and rosemary. 

Not less interesting than the extraordinary 
industrial and agricultural activity of these 
people is their history and language. It seems 

140 



The Grbden Valley 

to be now generally conceded that the inhabit- 
ants of the Grodnerthal are of Raetian origin. 
Whether this means Etruscan or Celtic, or a 
mixture of both, is a question which remains 
more or less unsettled. Be that as it may, the 
prevailing language is Ladin. It contains at 
least five per cent, of Raetian words, eighty 
per cent, of vulgarized Latin ones, and fifteen 
per cent, of German ones. This mixture 
maintains itself with a tenacity which is as- 
tonishing, considering the nearness of German 
influences. Most of the inhabitants, it is true, 
now speak German as well, but often with a 
foreign accent, which is really quite pleasing. 
One of the chief reasons why Ladin is still 
cultivated by the people is, that they find it 
of advantage when they go out into the world 
as peddlers. It gives them the key to all the 
other Romance languages; in a few weeks 
they can master the rudiments of Italian, 
French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. As ex- 
amples of Ladin, I may cite: Urtischei, the 
local name of St. Ulrich; bona seira, is good 
evening; bot, a boy; fuya, a pocket, etc. 

Beyond St. Ulrich, the valley rises and 
narrows gradually. At St. Christina a superb 
view awaits you from the church terrace. 
From up there the green slopes and the red 

141 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

rocks contrast vividly, while the edges of the 
torrent look as though embroidered by the 
white foam. Opposite, the Langkofel, no- 
where else so majestic, so mysterious and 
dominant, rises, sheer and gray, above the 
forests of the foot-hills, or wraps its head in 
lowering clouds. Not a blade of grass, appar- 
ently, can take root on its pitiless flanks. 

There was a time when several families of 
nobles sat perched in their castles upon the 
surrounding heights, not the least of them 
being the Counts von Wolkenstein, whose 
ruined ancestral seat still clings to the steep 
side of the mountain above St. Maria in the 
Langenthal. Schloss Fischburg, overlooking 
St. Christina, later became the principal castle 
of this family. It was built in 1622, and 
appears extremely well to this day. 

There is something for almost every type 
of visitor in the Grodnerthal. The mountains 
are an open text-book for the geologists; they 
spread their violet grays, their streaks of red, 
and the stains of yellow before the eyes of 
impressionistic painters, and gladden the 
hearts of the expert Dolomite climbers. 



142 



CHAPTER XVI 

TWO MINNESINGERS 

Walther von der Vogelweide and Oswald von 
Wolkenstein 

WHEN one travels southward over the 
Brenner Pass, there comes a place where the 
north leaves off and the south begins. It is 
somewhere in the stretch from Brixen to 
Bozen. There the air of the Alps mingles 
with the breath from the plain of Lombardy. 
The two atmospheres hold one another in 
check. Sometimes they overlap, and each 
cries victory. In that region, too, comes a 
change in the rocks. The common limestone 
of the Teutonic Tyrol gives way to fantastic 
Dolomite formations, and to pillars of vol- 
canic porphyry, twisted and seared. 

In this same region, there is the side valley 
opening from Waidbruck, where a remnant 
of the ancient Raeti stands at bay. Put your 

143 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

finger on the map at that point in the Bren- 
nerthal where the Grodnerthal joins it, for 
you may know that some unusual manifesta- 
tion must have taken place at such a racial 
cross-roads. And, in fact, there was once a 
veritable nest of Minnesingers there. The 
greatest of them all was born there, Walther 
von der Vogelweide, and within hailing dis- 
tance the last of them, Oswald von Wolken- 
stein. Over there at Klausen, perched on its 
lofty crags, was another of less note, Leuthold 
von Saben, but we will not stop for him here. 

Walther von der Vogelweide (between 
Il68 - 75 and 1230) 

Neither the date of Walther's birth nor the 
place where he was born have been settled 
entirely beyond dispute. For the first, some 
year between 1168 and 1 175 is generally ac- 
cepted; for the second, there has been much 
shifting of ground from Franconia to Bohe- 
mia, then to the neighbourhood of Sterzing, 
and finally, to a farm above Waidbruck, 
called the Vogelweidehof. 

In 1874, Professor Ignaz von Zingerle, in 
the presence of a throng of scholars and poets, 
of Tyrolese townspeople and peasants, un- 

144 



Two Minnesingers 

veiled a marble tablet over the door of the 
farmhouse. It bears the following inscription: 

" Her Walther von der Vogelweide 
Swer des vergaeze, der taet mir leide. 
(Who should forget him, would grieve me). " 

The women of Brixen and Bozen united in 
doing honour to the poet, who had sung so 
nobly of the German woman of his day. 

This tablet and the statue of Walther von 
der Vogelweide, in near-by Bozen, have prac- 
tically settled the question of his birthplace, 
as far as the travelling public is concerned. 

Walther belonged to the lesser nobility 
(Dienstadel). In his twentieth year he 
started out into the world to make his for- 
tune. First he went to Vienna. At the court 
there he learned to " sing and say," singen 
und sagen, i. e., he learned both music and 
text. From this period date most of his 
lively, fresh spring songs. But he did not con- 
fine himself to Minne-songs. His poems tell 
us a good deal about himself personally and 
about contemporary events. He wandered 
from court to court as a strolling singer, his 
fiddle (Fiedl) by his side. He tells us that he 
travelled " from the Elbe to the Rhine and 

145 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

into Hungary. From the Seine to the Mur, 
from the Po to the Trave." 

Walther spent the years between 1204 an d 
1207 at the court of the Margrave of Thu- 
ringia. Poets from all sides were attracted 
thither. Tradition has represented the ri- 
valry between the different poets as culminat- 
ing in a veritable Poets' War, or Sangerkrieg 
on the Wartburg. Walther took part, and 
five other Minnesingers. Wolfram von Esch- 
enbach carried off the prize. A substratum 
of historical truth seems to underlie this 
Sangerkrieg. 

In 1228 he accompanied Frederick II. to 
the Crusades. Frederick II. had given him 
an estate near Wurzburg, and there he died 
in 1230, two years after his return from Pales- 
tine. He was buried in the Lorenzgarten in 
front of the door of the new Minster. His 
burial-place has lately been rediscovered, but 
not his tombstone. This, however, was still 
visible in the eighteenth century. 

According to tradition, Walther left a 
bequest in his will from which the birds were 
to be fed on his tomb with grains of wheat and 
water. Four cavities, to contain food and 
drink, were said to have been hollowed out of 
the tombstone* 

146 



Two Minnesingers 

Longfellow has told of Walther's bequest 
in his characteristic singing verse: 

" Vogelweid the Minnesinger, 
When he left this world of ours, 
Laid his body in the cloister, 
Under Wurzburg's minster towers. 

" And he gave the monks his treasures, 
Gave them all with this behest : — 
They should feed the birds at noontide 
Daily on his place of rest ; 

" Saying : c From these wandering minstrels 
I have learned the art of song ; 
Let me now repay the lessons 
They have taught so well and long/ " 

Walther von der Vogelweide was the 
greatest lyric singer of Germany during the 
middle ages. Gottfried von Strassburg, his 
contemporary, in his poem on " Tristan " 
(verse 4791), praises his name as that of the 
master of them all. In fact, his name and 
influence lived on through the following era 
of the Meistersinger, and in the eighteenth 
century the study and appreciation of his 
work revived. 

Miss Charlotte H. Coursen, in an article 
on the poet in The Home Journal of New 

147 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

York, shows true appreciation of his finer 
qualities. She says, in part: 

" His light-hearted enjoyment does not 
preclude a genuine religious feeling, — often 
expressed, as in his devout Morning Hymn, 
and also when he says that ' he who repeats the 
ten commandments and breaks them, knows 
not true love/ and ' he who calls God 
" Father," and treats me not as a brother, 
uses the word in a weakened sense.' His 
patriotism found expression in the famous 
song, ' Deutschland uber Alles,' beginning, 
' Ye shall say that I am welcome/ and form- 
ing the prototype of modern German patriotic 
songs. Walther is true; we are convinced 
that he feels all that he professes to feel. He 
despises hypocrisy. i God knows/ he naively 
exclaims, ' my praise should be always given 
to the life of courts, if it were always such as 
beseems courtiers, and if word and deed 
accorded well together. I shudder when one 
smiles on me without a reason, — honey upon 
his lips, while gall is in his heart.' He ad- 
dresses men, and speaks of them in a frank and 
manly spirit, while for women he shows a 
truly chivalric regard. He never wearies of 
praising the beauty, gentleness, and truthful- 
ness of his countrywomen, and, though his 

148 



Two Minnesingers 

love-songs are many, he sings much of a love 
which rests not only upon the beauty, but also 
upon the higher qualities of women. For 
children there is evidently a warm place in 
his heart, as shown in his ' Teaching of 
Children :' 

* Would you safely guide them, 
Do not harshly chide them. 
He who aught of this doth know 
Gives a word, and not a blow. 

c Children, this is reason ; 
Close your lips in season ; 
Push the bolt across the door; 
Speak those angry words no more.' 

" And so on, with a repeated rhyme in each 
verse, such as might attract the fancy of a 
child. 

" His broad sympathies are shown in a spirit 
rather unusual for that time, when he says: 
' Christians, Jews, heathen, all serve the Great 
Sustainer of all.' " 

The modern revival of interest in Walther 
is due not only to his work as an artist, but 
also to his words as a prophet. He stands 
close to the German heart of to-day because he 



149 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

sang of the unity of Germany and worked for 
that ideal. 



Oswald von Wolkenstein (lj6y - 1 445) 

There is something fabulous about Oswald 
von Wolkenstein's career. He was born in 
1367, in Castle Trostburg, at the entrance of 
the Groden Valley. At ten years of age he 
ran away from home to join a company of 
Tyrolese knights, who followed Duke Al- 
brecht III. of Austria, upon an expedition 
against the heathen Lithuanians. He re- 
mained several years in the state founded by 
the Order of Teutonic Knights, then at the 
height of its power, perfecting himself in 
various branches of military service. 

Then the desire to wander seized him, and 
he passed through the great Hansa ports out 
into the wide world, a man-at-arms, a fiddler, 
and a knight errant of many shifts. He 
fought for the Danish Queen Margaret 
against the Swedes; with the Scotch under 
Douglas against the English. He visited 
London, Ireland, Russia; was shipwrecked in 
the Black Sea; penetrated to the Euphrates 
through Persian Armenia; and worked his 
way homeward as cook and boatswain, touch- 

150 



Two Minnesingers 

ing at the island of Crete, seeing something 
of Constantinople, Greece, Dalmatia, and 
Venice. 

After an absence of fifteen years, Oswald 
returned to his native castle in the Tyrol. He 
was only twenty-five years of age, and had 
already seen a great part of the then known 
world. He did not stay long at home, for 
presently we hear of his taking ship at 
Genoa for Alexandria in Egypt. 

In Cairo he was received by the Sultan. He 
prayed on Mount Sinai; entered the Holy 
Land at Jericho; made verses in Bethlehem; 
and was created Knight of the Holy Sepul- 
chre in Jerusalem. 

On his homeward journey, Oswald touched 
at the islands of Cyprus, Malta, and Sicily. 
In Italy he learned to know Dante's Divine 
Comedy and Petrarch's lyrics. 

After an absence of three years he returned 
to the Tyrol. It chanced just then that a great 
historical movement was pulsing through the 
German Empire, due to the desire on the part 
of the freemen and the lesser nobility to enter 
into direct dependence upon the empire, and 
to do away with intermediaries. But the 
Dukes of Habsburg, having been driven from 



151 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Switzerland, desired nothing so much as to 
assure their position in the Eastern Alps. 

Knight Oswald von Wolkenstein became 
the head and front of the League on the Etsch, 
directed against the house of Habsburg, and 
a desultory war resulted, lasting twenty years, 
in which Habsburg finally subdued the mem- 
bers of the lesser nobility one by one. 

During a lull in this conflict between the 
League on the Etsch and Habsburg, Oswald, 
confirmed globe-trotter that he was, once 
more set out in the quest of adventure, this 
time to fight the Moors in Spain. 

Singing his way from castle to court, he 
stopped one day at Hohenschwangau, on the 
frontier between the Tyrol and Bavaria. 
The Schwangau family were fond of music. 
A daughter of the house, Margarethe, knew 
Oswald's songs, and sang them to the harp. 
The two fell in love with each other, and were 
betrothed; and it was arranged that the wed- 
ding should take place on Oswald's return 
from Spain. 

Thereupon the Minnesinger continued his 
journey down the Rhine to Holland, over to 
England. Thence to Portugal, where an 
expedition was just being arranged against the 
Moors in Africa. He helped to storm Ceuta 

i5 2 



Two Minnesingers 

(141 1 ), arrived in Granada, where he was 
distinguished by Yussuf, the Red King; passed 
through Castile, was proclaimed a second 
Cid, and reached Aragon. 

He landed eventually in Genoa, and in 
1413 was once more in his castle in the Tyrol. 

He met his betrothed after a separation of 
five years, and they were married in 1417. 
The best of his songs were written to her, and 
through them the fame of her beauty and of 
her virtues passed from one German land to 
another. 

There is extant a touching letter which she 
wrote him a few weeks before his death, when 
he was seventy-eight years of age, and was 
attending the sessions of the Tyrolese Land- 
tag in Meran. " If you stay longer at the 
Council send for me. . . . Once for all, I 
will not be without you, here or elsewhere." 

His body lies buried in the Monastery of 
Neustift, and in the cloisters of the cathedral 
at Brixen there is an upright stone which 
shows him in the armour of a Crusader, a 
sword by his side, with fluttering flag, and a 
lyre that seems to confirm his title to be called 
the last of the Minnesingers. 



153 



SOUTHERN TYROL 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE BASIN OF BOZEN 

As we stray southward, the grass of the 
uplands shrivels under the sun; the tall pines 
shrink to bushes; the mountainsides grow 
bare and burned. The clear, hard greens and 
blues of the north turn to browns and laven- 
ders. The cool tonic of the Alps meets the 
hot air from the plains. Innsbruck shakes 
hands with Verona. The vineyards climb up 
to the edge of the chestnut forests, and the 
flowers seem uncertain whether to be tropical 
or arctic. Then we know that we have strayed 
into the borderland between Romance and 
Teutonic Tyrol. 

Here lies the city which the Germans call 
Bozen, and the Italians Bolzano. Take your 
stand on the Talfer bridge, and use your eyes 
well. 

Cyclopean walls stand around about the 
basin of Bozen; here brown-red precipices of 
porphyry, blistering in the heat, upon which 

157 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the cypress and the cactus grow; there, bare, 
gray masses, shadeless, and Oriental. Here 
are arboured vineyards, studded with summer 
houses and shrines, there many castles tower 
from many crags and spurs. Here a vista of 
the valley of the Etsch goes a-narrowing and 
its mountains a-stooping toward the south; 
there, in the east, the group of the Rosengar- 
ten points transcendental flowers to the utmost 
sky. 

The basin of Bozen is an extraordinary 
meeting-place of the elements. There is fire 
in the volcanic rocks and in the unrelenting 
sun; water in the unruly confluence of Talfer 
and Eisack, and of Etsch, lower down; and 
air, — there is air to suffuse everything and 
give it charm. 

Bozen acts very like a chameleon. When 
you approach it from the south, the town 
looks German; when you come from the 
north, it shows the nearness of Italy. Every- 
thing depends upon the point of view, but, in 
truth, Bozen the town is Teutonic amid a 
Romance environment. The Teutonic touch 
is on everything within the town, on the 
painted iron scrollwork signs, on the fat 
draught-horses, and on the one-horse cabs, 
made for two. You see the Teutonic tone 

158 



The Basin of Bozen 

especially in the scrupulous cleanliness of the 
streets. Still, Italian is heard more and more 
about town every year. Most of the citizens 
have learned to speak that language when 
necessary. Bozen proper has over thirteen 
thousand inhabitants, of whom some fifteen 
hundred are of Italian race. Including the 
suburbs, the population can be reckoned at 
twenty thousand. Another twenty thousand 
persons, strangers, pass through Bozen annu- 
ally as transient visitors. 

All roads seem to lead to Bozen. It is the 
cross-roads for the Brenner and the Vintsgau 
route: the Stelvio and the Finstermunz. 
From time immemorial generals have passed 
here with their armies, emperors and pilgrims 
to Rome, and merchants plying between Ger- 
many and Italy. Now the tourists keep up 
the traditions of travel, but Bozen, unlike 
Meran, does not depend upon them absolutely. 
It is no mere resort, it is a business centre; it 
has local products, especially in the way of 
wine and fruit. 

Have you ever eaten Bozen preserves? 
There is a regular Actiengesellschaft fur Con- 
servirte Fruchte in Bozen. When you first 
taste these conserved fruits, you think there 
has been a mistake, for the fruits are in mus- 

159 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

tard. But many people like fruit thus pre- 
served to eat as a relish with meat. 

Bozen, like Innsbruck, began life as a 
bridge. 

On a Roman itinerary, traced during the 
reign of Emperor Theodosius, the name Pons 
Drusi appears on the spot where Bozen now 
stands. Later a curious collection of names 
covered the spot: Bauxare, Pauzana, Baza- 
num, Bosanum, Bozan, Bulsanum. Out of 
this assortment the Germans picked a Bozen 
for themselves, and the Italians a Bolzano. 
The place proved an apple of discord between 
the Counts of Tyrol and the Bishops of Trent, 
and received some hard knocks in a tussle for 
possession between the two. Many fires, and 
repeated inundations by the Talfer also did 
their work, but at length, in the seventeenth 
century, came the golden age of Bozen. 

Through certain special privileges, granted 
by the ruling archdukes, Bozen became an 
important centre of the transport trade be- 
tween Venice, Verona, and the German cities 
of the north. Population increased, and the 
name of Bozen became known from the 
Adriatic to the North Sea. It produced an 
aristocracy of trade which was different from 
the aristocracy of the castles around about. It 

1 60 



The Basin of Bozen 

was a smaller Augsburg or Nurnberg, with 
wealthy patricians and big purses of its own. 
The four fairs of Bozen were international 
functions in those days, and, in changing much 
money, the bankers of Bozen allowed a good 
deal of the gold dust to stick to their fingers, 
as was right and proper. 

Bozen is not what it was then, relatively 
speaking, but its present growth is wholesome, 
and there is said to be a good deal of money 
saved up for a rainy day. Society amuses it- 
self in a really sociable way, with almost as 
many clubs and societies as a Swiss town of its 
size would have. Besides, Bozen is the seat of 
several K. K. institutions, of a judicial and an 
administrative district. It has a chamber of 
commerce and many schools. 

In our sightseeing through Bozen, we can- 
not do better than begin with the parish 
church. A street, shaded by horse-chestnut- 
trees and flanked by public gardens, leads 
straight from the station to the church. 

The building is not easily overlooked. It 
is so intensely Teutonic, so distinctly Gothic, 
after the many basilicas of the Latin lands 
toward the south. There is a slim steeple of 
openwork design, fretted and carved out of 
good, honest, red stone. There is also a gay 

161 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

roof of green tiles in pattern. The church 
might almost be standing in Swabia itself, 
imitating the red sandstone, the tall pines, and 
the green foliage of the Black Forest! 

When all other signs fail, the people of 
Bozen will always be able to point to their 
parish church, as proof that they are of Ger- 
man stock. 

And, in fact, when we come to investigate, 
we find that the steeple was built by Johannes 
Lutz, from Schussenried, in Swabia, during 
the years 1501 and 15 19. There were origi- 
nally two towers, but one had to be torn down 
more than five hundred years ago, after an 
earthquake, and the second suffered so much 
by fire, that Lutz had to rebuild it entirely 
in its present form. The church, as a whole, 
and as it stands to-day, is fourteenth-century 
work; only the west portal, with two lions in 
Lombard style, seems to date from an earlier 
building. From another period, also (1514), 
dates the elaborate pulpit in stone. 

A statue to Walther von der Vogelweide 
stands in the square called the Johannsplatz. 
It is the work of a Tyrolese sculptor, the late 
Heinrich Natter. This artist was born in 
Graun, a hamlet in the Vintsgau, not far from 
Nauders. The Hofer statue on Berg Isel, and 

162 




STATUE OF WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE IN BOZEN 



The Basin of Bozen 

this statue of Walther von der Vogelweide, 
are his two main contributions toward the 
praise of his native land. He was a simple 
man of the mountains, filled with an intense 
appreciation for the heroic qualities inherent 
in the Tyrolese subjects he treated. He was 
also the sculptor of the notable statue of 
Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Those are happy summer evenings in the 
square when the band plays. Many kinds of 
people sit at many tables, belated tourists 
eating their suppers, or citizens out for an 
airing. There are wonderful Alpine climb- 
ers, with enormous shoes, short breeches, and 
peeling noses. They may look red and un- 
shaven, but they feel triumphant. There are 
pretty gentlemen in green hats with curly 
feathers, who are doing their mountains 
mostly in the Stellwagen. There are German 
professors who find this borderland between 
German and Italian influences a happy hunt- 
ing-ground for etymological derivations. 
Some ladies have dressed for dinner in fluffy 
light things, others glory in weather-stained 
green woollens, and wear hobnailed shoes. 

The basin of Bozen can become decidedly 
hot in summer, even for Americans; it is 
hotter, the statistics say, than Trent, though 

163 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the latter lies farther south. The sun shines 
with steady rays, baking and broiling and 
driving the people indoors for a noonday 
siesta. Business comes to a standstill in the 
middle of the day. Only under the arcades 
is a languid interest in commercial activity 
still maintained. All those who can, go to the 
mountains for July, August, and part of 
September. They leave for the Ritten, the 
Schlern, or the Jenesien, to spend their Som- 
merfrische up there, their summer-cooling-off. 
Those who cannot afford to go away entirely, 
content themselves with a Saturday-to-Mon- 
day trip in the heights. The people of Bozen 
know a great many little nooks and ledges on 
the sides of their basin, many plateaux on top, 
where you can have all the luxuries of the 
Alps for next to nothing: milk fresh from the 
cow, and air straight from the snow. 

The Laubengasse recalls the central street 
of Bern. There are the same arcades on either 
hand, the same sidewalks sheltered from 
sun and rain, where stores display their wares 
and form a continuous bazaar. The half- 
light produces a feeling of friendly intimacy 
and hospitality. The Mercantil-Gebaude, 
about midway on the Laubengasse, is an ornate 
building, finished in 1717, and containing a 

164 



The Basin of Bozen 

large hall, used for festivities, and especially 
for exhibitions. As in Bern, so here, there are 
many passages through the houses that are 
used by the public. They are short cuts from 
the Laubengasse to the parallel Silbergasse 
and Karnergasse. 

The Obstplatz, however, is distinctly of 
Bozen and not of Bern, for the fruits and 
flowers, brought there for sale, look and smell 
of the semi-tropical southern foot of the Alps. 
Even almonds, figs, and melons grow in the 
open air. There is no longer much costume 
in Bozen, but you will generally see what is 
left of it on the Obstplatz. There the women 
vendors wear short white sleeves, caught 
above the elbow by an elastic or ribbon. A 
bright kerchief is folded over the shoulders 
and bosom, with a corner pointing down the 
back. It is especially the women who sell 
mushrooms and yellow-red gourds for drink- 
ing vessels, who cling to the local costume. 
If the men wear green hats with feathers, that 
is all that can be expected of them nowadays. 

Take it all in all, if the guide-books must 
liken Bozen to some other foreign city, per- 
haps they may as well call it " The Florence 
of the Tyrol." The resemblance is not very 
close, but Bozen certainly does grow a great 

165 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

many flowers, and does have a special annual 
flower-market on the first of May. 

There is a Rathhaus, a museum where most 
of the Tyrolese peasant costumes are shown, 
a palace of the Archduke Henry on the 
Johannsplatz, a new Burgersaal, not far from 
the station, and even a theatre, so that Bozen is 
a thoroughly well equipped modern city. Its 
sturdy inhabitants are doing much to enhance 
its beauties, and its growing popularity with 
strangers from many lands is proof that the 
good people of Bozen make the best of hosts. 



1 66 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE ROSENGARTEN — A GARDEN OF ROSES 

To the east of Bozen rises the mountain 
group to which the poetical name of the 
Rosengarten has been given. The roses in 
this garden are of rock, and only bloom at 
sunset! They are literally flowers of stone. 
Their thorns are sharp pinnacles of chalk and 
magnesia, and their fragrance is the keen, 
sweet smell which rises from beds of snow, 
and wastes of stone, and stretches of summer 
pastures! 

The finer the day, the farther it fades, this 
Garden of Roses. The more treacherous the 
weather, the nearer it draws. The hotter the 
morrow, the redder the roses. The sun sinks 
behind the Guntschnaberg, and the Garden of 
Roses, facing west, receives the full force of 
its parting rays. A violet twilight creeps 
over the plain, city, and foot-hills. The roses 
blush, then glow like red-hot iron. The 

167 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

violet pursues the red up the precipices. The 
shadows follow the colours foot by foot. 

Suddenly there are ashes of roses against 
the sky. The sun has burned up the flowers. 

This nightly wonder of the blushing rocks 
has had its own particular effect upon the 
people of Bozen. Some fantastic fellow, as 
he watched it on a summer evening, called the 
company of reddened peaks a Rosengarten, 
and presently somebody else, I believe it was 
a certain Heinrich von Ofterdingen, made a 
full-blown legend to grow up there, one of 
the many romances in which the redoubtable 
Dietrich von Bern, Theodoric of Verona, is 
represented as swinging his great sword Sachs. 

To this day the people of Bozen call a snow- 
patch just under the summit of the highest 
peak, the Gartl, or Little Garden. 

The legend of the Rosengarten is as fol- 
lows: The dwarf king, Laurin, had his 
crystal palace in the interior of the mountain 
mass, and there he hid away the golden-haired 
sister of Dietlieb of Steier, a henchman of 
Dietrich of Bern. But Knights Dietlieb and 
Dietrich, with their swordsmen, came up 
quickly from Verona, from the land where 
the Etsch is called the Adige, and penetrated 
into the mountain through a grotto at the foot 

1 68 



The Rosengarten 

of the Schlern, whereupon Dietrich defeated 
Laurin, in spite of the latter's magic spells, 
but spared his life at the request of Dietlieb. 
Laurin, in return, set drugged wine before his 
guests, so that when they awoke, they found 
themselves bound in the bowels of the earth. 
Then it was that Simild, the sister, came and 
freed them. Finally Dietrich and his knights 
fought Laurin and his dwarfs and giants, trod 
the roses under foot, and took Simild and 
Laurin back with them to Verona. 

This story explains why the roses no longer 
bloom as steadily as they used to do, but only 
glow r for a few minutes on fine evenings. 

The key to the underground palace of the 
elfin king was lost somehow during the dark 
ages, but it is still possible to climb up into 
the Rosengarten and tread its mazes. 

There are three main entrances to the 
Rosengarten on the Teutonic side: one from 
Kardaun through the Eggenthal to Wel- 
schnofen, another from Blumau, by the valley 
of Tiers and Weisslahn-Bad, and a third from 
Waidbruck, over Kastelruth and Vols. But 
open the garden gate of your own choice, and 
pluck your own roses. You will soon find 
that some of these tall flowers are not to be 
picked by ordinary climbers. 

169 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The English are said to have been the first 
climbers in the Rosengarten. Messrs. C. C. 
Tucker and F. H. Carson made the first 
ascents in 1874. Now, practically every tower 
and pinnacle has been ascended. Nothing is 
too steep, too exposed, or too smooth for the 
new school of Dolomite climbers. The Ger- 
man-Austrian Alpine Club has covered the 
approaches with signs and shelter-huts. In 
1887, a student named Winkler, from Munich, 
ascended the most southern of the Vajolett 
towers, which had been considered impreg- 
nable up to that time. It has now been called 
after him the Winklerthurm. Then came 
another climber " without guides," Delago of 
Brixen, who conquered the last and most 
difficult of the Vajolett towers, and gave it 
the name of Delagothurm. Among the ex- 
traordinary feats in the Rosengarten, must be 
mentioned the trip of the late Norman- 
Neruda, son of the famous violinist, Lady 
Halle, with Dr. H. Lorenz of Vienna, and 
R. V. Arvay of Graz, who crossed over the 
Funffingerspitze twice in one day, from south 
to north, and from west to east. Two English- 
men, G. S. Raynor, and J. S. Phillmore, of 
Oxford, with two guides, also accomplished 
what must be counted among the most diffi- 

170 



The Rosengarten 

cult feats in the whole range of the Alps: 
with two guides they climbed directly up the 
terrible eastern precipices of the Rosengarten 
to the top. A growing number of women also 
take part in this marvellous rock-work. In 
fact, only the journals of the various Alpine 
clubs can do justice to this life above the snow 
line. 

The majority of visitors to the Rosengarten 
are happy if they can only wander about at 
the foot of these tall standard roses, and sniff 
their perfume from below. The whole dis- 
trict of the approaches is rich in natural 
beauties. Nowhere else in the Tyrol are the 
brooks more crystalline, when they flow over 
their beds of white stone. The Karersee itself 
is a small lake which reflects the Latemar as 
clearly as the Durrensee does Monte Cristallo, 
and its blue has the same silvery sheen as the 
famous Blue Lake, on the way from Spiez to 
Kandersteg in Switzerland. This, too, is a 
region of many hamlets and summer hotels. 

The writer entered the Rosengarten from 
the Romance side, one July day, from Perra, 
in the Val Fassa. The path lay through a 
valley whose very name, Val Vajolett, seemed 
to conjure up the smell of flowers. As the 
path mounted^ the rich firs slowly degen- 

171 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

erated into shrubs, and then ceased altogether. 
There followed the white rocks of the upper 
solitudes, the characteristic Dolomite debris; 
then occasional snow-patches lay in the shade; 
and finally the peaks of the Rosengarten itself 
rose in a ring, forming a vast cauldron. 

Large, unstable clouds drifted along the 
precipices, dwelling here and there, caress- 
ingly, as though stroking the cheeks of loved 
ones; elsewhere little woolly clouds hovered 
from peak to peak, like busy bees among the 
flowers, while thin streamers wound in and 
out, twining themselves like ribbons of tulle 
around and about to bind all the roses together 
into a united picture of loveliness and exalted 
thought. 

Round about the Basin 

Out on the highways and byways of Bozen 
there is so much of beauty to stimulate interest, 
that almost anybody might become a Minne- 
singer on the spot. 

Gries is a favourite suburb. It has a winter 
promenade on the hillside, much like Meran, 
and there is a Curhaus with regular concerts. 

There is also an ancient suburb of Bozen, 
called Zwolfmalgreien, but the delimitation 
of its boundaries is now difficult to trace. The 

172 



The Rosengarten . 

station of Bozen, for example, is said to be in 
Zwolfmalgreien, and not in Bozen-town 
proper. The name is of interest as an example 
of Teutonized Latin. Etymologists derive 
" malgreien " from malga or malgaria, mean- 
ing an Alpine dairy. Before the Romans 
introduced the vine into the land, the place 
was probably the seat of twelve dairy huts. 

One morning we can stroll up the Calvari- 
enberg; another day the Jenesien beckons to 
us from the north. But finally the visitor's 
attention is sure to be drawn to the heights 
between the Talfer and the Eisack valleys, 
where lies the table-land of the Ritten, espe- 
cially beloved of the people of Bozen. It is a 
vast summer resort, between three and four 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, within 
easy reach of the bottom of the basin, and yet 
refreshed by the air of the Alps, and rejoicing 
in an unmatched outlook over the Dolomites. 
Oberbozen and Klobenstein are the chief 
villages of the Ritten. 

Attention, also, should be called to the 
peculiar earth pyramids, near the hamlet of 
Lengmoos, on the northeastern flank of the 
Ritten. Similar formations occur in other 
parts of this district. These pyramids are 
apparently the remains of an ancient moraine, 

173 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the refuse from an extinct glacier. Exposed 
to the action of water, frost, and wind, the 
side of the moraine has been worn into col- 
umns, surmounted by stones, like capitals, the 
whole forming a fantastic array on the moun- 
tain flank. 

If you move your ringer afield on the map 
in the neighbourhood of Bozen, a galaxy of 
names of castles follows closely, each with 
its artistic or martial meaning: Karneid, 
Runkelstein, Sigmundskron, Greifenstein, 
Haselburg, Eppan, and others, until finally, 
near Meran, we come to Castle Tyrol itself, 
which has given its name to the whole coun- 
try. 

Toward the southwest from Bozen the 
range of the Mendel looms into view, pre- 
senting a wall toward Italy. In mounting to 
the Mendel Pass, by carriage or train, which- 
ever you may choose, the view extends mar- 
vellously over the map-like valleys beneath. 
The Dolomites rear into view, the Rosen- 
garten beckons, the Latemar frowns, and far 
below, the fertile Ueberetsch lies dreaming at 
our feet. Though the Mendel Pass is not high 
(4,470 feet), the outlook is unique. There is 
not only snow in the background, but also 
tropical vegetation in the forefront, bleak 

174 



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'>;;* 


* «*- £ f h ~ *?& -• 


- 


' *'■ %i ■ ,•"■' '-..V ■' *; *, 





CASTLE KARNE1D 



The Rosengarten 

masses of rock cut the sky-line, rich villages 
cluster in the plains, and jutting castles dot 
the mountainsides. There are arid stretches 
and streams that glint and glimmer under the 
sun. Then, on the other side of the pass, the 
glittering Adamello and Presanella groups 
of snow mountains lie toward the south. One 
step farther and the language changes. A 
little walk along the road, and you hear men 
speaking Italian. Such are some of the de- 
lights and contrasts of this charming border- 
land. 

Under the Trellises 

The people of Bozen and Meran are not so 
Teutonic but what they can train their vines 
in arboured trellises, like their Romance 
neighbours. 

It is a curious fact, that almost the entire 
local vocabulary of the grape is of Latin 
origin. The trellises themselves, for instance, 
are called pergeln from the Italian pergola. 
One may question, perhaps, whether the trellis 
is as economical as the upright stick, which 
is used in northern Europe, but there is no 
doubt that the trellis is the more beautiful of 
the two. Then vegetables can be grown in the 
half-shade of the arbour, protected from the 

175 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

fierce southern sun, so that no part of the soil 
need be wasted. 

In the spring there is much animation under 
the bare arbours, much mending of the 
wooden slats, and hoeing of the ground, but in 
midsummer the activity in the vineyards is re- 
duced to a minimum, for the grapes are left 
to ripen under the hot rays. As you look up 
the mountain slopes, there may come a flash 
or two from a glittering hoe, but in general the 
vine-dressers wait patiently for the vintage, 
and the coopers prepare the vats and barrels. 

The vintage begins in the middle of Sep- 
tember, and lasts until well into October. The 
vintagers move under the arbours, cutting the 
hanging bunches, which fall into wooden 
bowls. These bowls, when full, are emptied 
into hods, which, in turn, are emptied into 
big vats. Here the grapes are crushed with 
wooden implements, and the resulting mass 
allowed to go through the first process of 
fermentation. In a few weeks the new wine 
is drawn off, and taken to the cellars, to com- 
plete the process of fermentation. Water is 
poured on the remaining skins and stems, and, 
when drained off, becomes a light house wine 
for home consumption. 



176 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE FRESCOES OF RUNKELSTEIN 

THE imperial castle of Runkelstein rises 
at the mouth of the ravine-like Sarnthal, only 
a short walk from Bozen. It is a solemn com- 
plex of stone and mortar, topped by roofs of 
dull red tiles, the whole seated on a pedestal 
of porphyry, sheer and brown. From the west 
the castle looks like a giant crystal, weather- 
stained, springing from the living rock. 
Around its base the Talfer curls noisily, 
while the mountains start up sharply to right 
and left, sparsely covered with soft brush. At 
the gate a cypress points a black finger over 
the battlements, to show the nearness of Italy. 
You mount to the castle by a steep little 
path, cross a bridge that was once a draw, 
enter a gate surmounted by a half-effaced 
coat of arms, and stand within the castle 
court, that distils feudal flavour on every 
hand. Just in front is the wing known as the 

177 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Summer-house, where some ancient frescoes 
are preserved. 

The outside walls are decorated with 
figures in groups, and within the Summer- 
house is a series of frescoes telling the story 
of Tristan and Isolde. They cover the walls 
of one of the two rooms into which the house 
is divided. The outlines of the figures are 
painted in black on a greenish ground. Judg- 
ing by the drawing and the fashions of the 
clothes, as well as by the history of the castle 
itself, we may say that the frescoes were done 
soon after 1385, an age when painting, even 
in next-door Italy, was still in its infancy, and 
was marked by stiffness of drawing and the 
most helpless perspective. The name of the 
painter is unknown. 

Here the story of Tristan and Isolde is 
depicted according to the fragmentary ver- 
sion of Gottfried of Strassburg, which varies 
not a little from the more familiar one con- 
tained in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte 
Darthur. 

The second room in the Summer-house 
contains nothing less than the complete legend 
of Garel of the Blooming Valley, according 
to the version of a certain Pleier, a poet from 
Styria or Salzburg, who wrote about the 

178 



The Frescoes of Runkelstein 

middle of the thirteenth century, and whose 
manuscript is said to be preserved at Linz, 
in Austria. 

Garel is probably the Gareth of Le Morte 
Darthur, there surnamed Beaumayns, or Fair 
Hands. 

Toward the end of the series, in a fresco of 
surpassing interest, we see the victorious 
knights of the Round Table sitting at meat, 
— King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Laun- 
celot, and many another of the far-famed 
company. 

In truth, Runkelstein is like an illustrated 
text-book of Le Morte Darthur. Here 
themes from a dim Celtic mythology, filtered 
through French and English sources, have 
found a German abiding-place. 

On the outside walls of the Summer-house 
Tristan and Isolde are to be seen, and with 
them other figures of great value. These are 
arranged in groups of three, forming triads, 
which were a favourite subject for artists of 
the time. 

First, the three greatest pagan heroes: 
Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius 
Caesar, clad in mediaeval accoutrements. 
Then the three greatest heroes of Jewish 
history: Joshua, David, and Judas Macca- 

179 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

baeus; the best Christian kings: Arthur of 
England, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of 
Bouillon. 

Curiously enough, William Caxton, in the 
introduction of his first edition of Malory's 
Le Morte Darthur, enumerates these same 
groups of heroes as worthy of a writer's pen. 

After this, the best knights of the Round 
Table: Parcival, bearing a shield with white 
anchor on red ground, Gawein, and Iwein 
(Percyual, Gawayn, and Ewayne). The 
three noblest pairs of lovers are represented by 
Duke William of Austria and his Aglei, 
Tristan and Isolde, and William of Orleans 
and Amelie. 

To the right of the portal follow the three 
best swordsmen and their swords. The in- 
scriptions read: Ditterich vo Pern treit 
sachs (Theodoric of Verona, surnamed the 
Great, bears Sachs, his favourite weapon). 
Sivreit treit er palmung (Siegfried bears the 
Balmung). Dietleib von Steyer treit belsung 
(Dietlieb of Steier, a knight connected with 
the Rosengarten legend, bears Belsung or 
Welsung). 

The triads are closed by three groups of the 
strongest giants, the most terrible giantesses, 
and the best dwarfs, whose names were doubt- 

180 



The Frescoes of Runkelstein 

less familiar enough to the little boys of the 
fourteenth century, but need hardly be in- 
flicted on the modern reader. 

The main body of the, castle, the part once 
inhabited by the family, called the Pallas, 
can boast of five further rooms with frescoed 
walls; and the question naturally arises, how 
came this extraordinary, and possibly unique, 
collection of frescoes to be painted at all, in 
a region now so remote from the great centres 
of the art world? 

The history of Runkelstein can be told in a 
few words. In a document, dated February 
10, 1237, Ulrich, Bishop of Trent, granted 
permission to a certain Tyrolese family, the 
lords of Wanga, to build a castle upon the site 
of a former rude keep. After the extinction 
of the house of Wanga, the castle passed 
through the hands of many families of the 
local nobility, until, in 1385, it was bought by 
two merchants of Bozen, Nicholas and Franz 
Vintler. 

It was Nicholas by whose orders the fres- 
coes were painted and the castle enlarged. 
His rule marks the golden age of Runkelstein. 
His coat of arms, white bears' paws, appears 
most frequently over the doorways. He 
gathered about himself a group of artists, 

181 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

poets, and singers. A cousin of his, Hans 
Vintler, here laboriously turned into rhyme 
a work of the Italian Tommaso Leone, which, 
10,172 verses strong, was printed in i486, 
under the title of " Pluemen der Tugent " 
(Flowers of Virtue) . Here Heinz Sentlinger, 
the chaplain of Nicholas, wrote a marvellous 
chronicle, now much prized by antiquarians. 
Many valiant knights held their jousts in the 
castle court, and not a few Minnesingers sang 
their couplets from the battlements. 

Nicholas Vintler himself was a sufficiently 
curious character among the men of his day 
to deserve a few lines in the history of his 
castle. 

As early as 1000 the family of Vintler made 
its appearance in Bozen, at that time an im- 
portant trade station for the traffic passing 
between Verona and Innsbruck, over the 
Brenner Pass. The Vintlers of Bozen rose 
to be merchant princes, like others in Augs- 
burg and Nuremberg. 

Acting always according to proved business 
methods, Nicholas, master of Runkelstein, 
became financial adviser to the Austrian arch- 
duke of his day, court banker, general farmer 
of taxes, and holder of mortgages on many 
castles and estates. In fact, he grew to be the 

182 



The Frescoes of Runkelstein 

money-bags of the Tyrol. Especially did he 
hold the purse-strings of that spendthrift 
Frederick of Austria, Friedl " with the 
Empty Pockets." 

The rooms in the main body of the castle 
are now dismantled as far as furniture is con- 
cerned, but their decorations are so remark- 
able that the Vintler period looms up as one 
of lavish luxury and astonishing magnificence. 

On the first floor is an apartment with the 
original wainscoting still preserved. On the 
second floor is situated a richly painted bath- 
ing-room. Figures of men and women, in 
alcoves, lean over a balustrade hung with 
draperies. Above them a row of smaller 
figures makes the round of the room. In the 
embrasure of a window a young woman and 
a youth with a falcon on his wrist face each 
other, — the latter a work of singular beauty. 

The pictures on the third floor are perhaps 
the most valuable of all in Runkelstein, at 
least to students of the fashions and social 
customs of Vintler's period. 

Upon entering the antechamber a large 
fresco is observed on the left hand, showing 
a court dance. 

The knights and ladies move hand in hand, 
a crowned princess in front and at the rear 

183 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

two musicians, one playing the mandolin and 
the other a violin. The step appears stately 
and gliding. 

To the right of the chamber door a game 
of ball is being played, apparently with apples 
for missiles. The lady who is about to throw 
the apple is said to be Margaretha Maultasch, 
while the man standing in front of her is 
Henry of Bohemia, her first husband. Other 
frescoes in this antechamber depict a tourna- 
ment wherein Vintler himself, judging by his 
coat of arms, is breaking a lance; or hunting 
scenes, showing the slaying of deer, bears, and 
wolves; here a party starts out from a castle 
of many towers toward the mountains, in quest 
of chamois; there ladies and gentlemen are 
amusing themselves by the waterside, fishing 
with rod and net. 

The rich decorations of the hall of armour 
resemble somewhat those of the bathing-room 
below, to which it corresponds. 

As Nicholas Vintler died without direct 
issue, Runkelstein, after its golden age, passed 
from family to family, until it came into the 
possession of the imperial house of Austria 
itself. 

Emperor Maximilian I. loved the place 
well, and had a wing built for his private use. 

184 



The Frescoes of Runkelstein 

More than all, he commissioned the painter, 
Friedrich Lebenbacher, of Brixen, to touch up 
the frescoes, which was done between the years 
1504 and 1508. 

For the most part, however, the castle was 
placed in the charge of military caretakers, 
who prized it only for its strong position. 
The passing centuries left their mark. In 
1520, a powder-magazine exploded in the 
cellar, destroying the whole of the southeast- 
ern corner of the castle. The frescoes were 
also scratched and scribbled upon by mis- 
chievous persons. As recently as 1868 the 
rock forming the foundation for the northern 
side suddenly collapsed, and carried down 
with it two frescoes of the Tristan and Isolde 
legend, as well as some of the Garel series. 

It was not till 1884 that the thorough 
restoration of Runkelstein was begun, by 
order of the present emperor. In 1893 ne 
presented it in free gift to the citizens of 
Bozen, to have and to hold in safe-keeping for 
future generations, as a monument of Tyro- 
lese art and history. 



185 



CHAPTER XX 

MERAN, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF TYROL 

One is tempted to exhaust the powers of 
praise on Meran, for its picture seems to have 
no flaw. Its towers and villas lie among 
southern vineyards and rich orchards, and yet 
mountains rise on every hand, which are 
tipped with snow until well into summer. 
The soft folds of chestnut-trees merge imper- 
ceptibly into forests of strait-laced pines. 

Indeed, there is something Oriental in the 
first sight of Meran. When you approach it 
from Bozen, this quality is, perhaps, less 
apparent than from the Vintsgau. From the 
bend in the Vintsgau road, where Meran first 
comes into sight, the white houses, walls, and 
glistening roofs might easily be mistaken for 
mosques and minarets, and the tall trees in the 
gardens for palms. 

Inside the towering gate, Meran is quite 
southern in architecture, but intensely Teu- 
tonic in sentiment. A long street of arcades 

1 86 




MERAN AND ITS PEASANTS 



Meran 

is called " Unter den Lauben." Here, too, 
is a house of special historical and antiquarian 
interest, the old Landesfurstliche Burg, once 
the residence of the Counts of Tyrol. It stands 
off from the main street, in a little court, and 
is in splendid state of preservation, full of 
genuine old Gothic furniture, household 
effects, frescoes, and armorial bearings. 

The Burg, moreover, recalls a line of 
Scotch history. Thither it was that Sigis- 
mund, the son of Friedl " with the Empty 
Pockets," brought his bride, Eleonora, daugh- 
ter of James I. of Scotland. 

One day in September, 1448, three Tyrolese 
knights rode up to Dunbar Castle, in Scot- 
land. They were Parcival of Annenberg, 
Leonhard of Velseck, and Ludwig of Land- 
see. They came to take Eleonora to be the 
bride of their master, the Archduke Sigis- 
mund of Habsburg Austria. 

It is related that the young couple crossed 
over the Brenner, were welcomed in Bozen by 
the nobility of the district, and passed in 
triumph from castle to castle as far as Meran, 
then the capital of the Tyrol. Here Sigis- 
mund had built a house for his bride, and this 
house was the Landesfurstliche Burg. 

Eleonora was praised by her contemporaries 

187 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

as a keen huntress, but the intellectual attain- 
ments of this daughter of the house of Stuart 
were especially unusual for a woman of her 
time. Meister Steinhovel, physician of Ulm, 
who translated Boccaccio's " Book of Cele- 
brated Women " into German, dedicated his 
work to her, and praised her without measure 
in his introduction. But more than that, she 
herself translated the French romance of 
" Pontus and Sidoni." It was printed in 
Augsburg. In the introduction we read: 

" Which history the Serene and High-born 
Lady Heleonora, born Queen of Scotland, 
Archduchess of Austria, has praiseworthily 
transferred and made from the French into 
the German tongue, to please the Serene 
High-born Prince and Lord, Sigmunder, 
Archduke of Austria, etc., her wedded 
husband." 

The good people of Meran have been very 
successful in making their town attractive for 
a long stay. There is a Kurhaus with the 
usual reading and reception-rooms; and there 
are concerts, balls, and festivals. 

Since 1892 a new series of attractions have 
been added to Meran in the shape of popular 
plays, dealing with Andreas Hofer, and other 
heroes of 1809. These plays have been ar- 

188 



Meran 

ranged by a well-known connoisseur of 
Meran and its neighbourhood, Carl Wolf, and 
are supported financially by the city, the 
administration of the Kurhaus and the Bozen- 
Meran railroad. The performances take 
place in April and September, and draw large 
and interested audiences. 

When Meran itself grows hot in summer, 
there are resorts and refuges on all the moun- 
tains around about, as at Bozen. But Meran 
is always endurable; the summer sun may 
scorch by day, but the nights at least are cool. 
In winter, the rare snow in the valleys falls 
smooth, dry, and fluffy over town and country, 
vineyards and walls, and clothes even the 
ancient castles with the spotless mantle of 
perennial freshness. 

Castle Tyrol 

Castle Tyrol shows brave and white against 
the dark range of the Kuchelberg. 

Trellis on trellis, terrace on terrace, the 
vineyards mount to Castle Tyrol, but beyond 
that the forests take their turn and lead up to 
the final grassy slopes and rocks of the range 
behind. In the early spring, when the sum- 
mits are still snow-capped, and the southern 

189 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

vegetation is bursting into life in the valleys, 
Castle Tyrol stands midway between the 
arctics and the tropics, arbiter of the north 
and the south, symbol and emblem of a union 
between the Alps and the plains. 

Castle Tyrol has acted for centuries as a 
hyphen between Teutonic and Romance 
Tyrol. It is the historic heart of the land, and 
surely the Tyrolese have a right to rejoice in 
the beauty of the birthplace of their name. 

The region around Meran originally 
formed the family estate of the Counts of 
Tyrol, the Burggrafenamt, as it was called. 
The counts themselves lived up in the castle, 
and Meran was their capital. There had 
been a Roman fort called Terriolis on the 
site of the castle, hence the name Tyrol. The 
rest of what is now the province of Tyrol 
was in the twelfth century still vaguely known 
as " The Mountain Land." It was divided 
among a multitude of nobles, who held their 
fiefs of the two prince bishops of Trent and 
Brixen, while the prince bishops, in their turn, 
were vassals of the German Empire. The 
Counts of Tyrol were particularly successful 
in expanding their original estate by pur- 
chase, marriage, and conquest. 

The first member of the family to establish 
190 




CASTLE TYROL FROM THE SOUTHEAST AND WEST 



Meran 

an estate was a certain Adelbert, a former 
henchman of the Bishop of Brixen, and the 
line of the Counts of Tyrol terminated in 
Margaretha Maultasch, the Purse-mouth. 
This lady outlived her children, and be- 
queathed the Tyrol to the Dukes of Habsburg, 
who hold it to this day as Emperors of Austria. 

The Peasants of Meran 

It is a rare type, that of the men of Meran, 
— a type sedate, silent, and almost sombre. 
A city square, full of these men, gives forth 
nothing but a quiet murmur of talk, whereas, 
a few miles farther south, two persons in con- 
versation are capable of raising an intolerable 
clamour. Though the swarthy faces and 
luminous black eyes show traces of Romance, 
perhaps even of Etruscan ancestry, yet, for 
all that, the peasants of Meran are German- 
speaking and German-thinking. 

They have preserved their local costume 
more fully than the people of any other dis- 
trict in the Tyrol. 

The men wear brown hats, high in the 
crown, wound with yards of thin cord, red 
in the case of bachelors, green for married 
men. The jacket is brown with red facings, 

191 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

and the suspenders are wide, and green or red. 
Buckskin breeches are not often seen in Meran 
now, except on some very old men. While 
at work the men are much given to long, white 
aprons. In fact, the region around Bozen and 
Meran, including lateral valleys, might be 
called the apron belt, for nowhere else, either 
in Romance or Teutonic Tyrol, do men so 
assiduously wear this supposed badge of femi- 
ninity. 

As for the women, their dress is unmistak- 
ably Teutonic. White, puffy sleeves stop just 
above the elbow, where they are caught close 
to the arm with little coloured ribbons or 
elastics. No hat is worn, the hair is brushed 
back plainly, and fastened in a knot with a 
long silver pin. A coloured handkerchief, 
passed round the neck, is folded demurely 
across the bosom. There is a long, plain skirt, 
and a big apron. In fact, the costume is 
simple to the verge of being classic. 

This whole subject of peasants' costumes 
is a matter for some special thought. 

In spite of all the well-meant efforts which 
have been made, costumes are bound to dis- 
appear. As intercommunication grows more 
frequent between different parts of the great 
earth, the sense of the unity of the human 

192 



Meran 

race also leads people to wear very much the 
same sort of clothes, the needs suggested by 
climate and occupation being taken into ac- 
count. The peasants of the Tyrol, and else- 
where, as they come into contact with the 
great world outside, begin to feel the very 
natural desire to be like other people, and this 
desire leads them by degrees to discard their 
costumes for a style of clothes more commonly 
worn. The process is everywhere about the 
same. First the costumes are put off from 
work days to Sundays, then from Sundays to 
special festivals, and finally their use drops 
off altogether. From being the ordinary 
thing, they become the rare, and at last, the 
conspicuous thing. The young begin the 
change, the middle-aged continue it, and, 
when the old have rejected the costumes, then 
the metamorphosis may be considered to be 
complete. 

Those visitors who bewail the change of 
dress may console themselves with the re- 
flection that as a rule the peasant costumes 
of to-day are not of peasant origin at all, for 
as a matter of fact, they generally represent 
obsolete and discarded fashions of the town. 

The process by which the peasants learned 
to adopt some special town fashion for their 

193 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

own has been described by Doctor Steub 
somewhat as follows : 

At long intervals, some period of special 
well-being, or some sudden stir among the 
peasants, would induce them to spend an 
unusual amount of money on themselves. 
They naturally desired to have new clothes 
also. They bought largely of the prevailing 
fashion of the day, and withdrew into their 
mountain valleys, to perpetuate that fashion 
from father to son, and mother to daughter. 
The fashions in the town might change, but 
the peasants kept on with the old for genera- 
tions, until a new era of prosperity induced 
them to invest once more in a different style 
of clothes. 

It is doubtful, however, whether such a 
process could be carried on in our day when 
almost every nook and cranny of the Alps 
has been placed in communication with the 
wide, wide world of fashion. 

The difference between the peasant cos- 
tumes of various valleys, of course, is due to 
the fact that such costumes have been adopted 
at different times and represent different 
fashions. 

The jacket of the men of Meran, for ex- 
ample, has been derived from the time of 

194 



Meran 

the Thirty Years' War. At the beginning of 
the last century a still more ancient costume 
could be seen at Kastelruth. It consisted of 
a gray, pointed cap, a large ruffle, short, red 
jacket, yellow breeches, and white stockings. 
This is about the costume of the modern 
German Hanswurst, or clown, and was a 
regular soldier's uniform, as seen in pictures, 
dating from the second half of the sixteenth 
century. So, too, until quite recently, the 
women of the Lower Inn valley wore high 
hats exactly like the silk hats of civilized man. 
Defregger has painted this head-gear many 
times in his pictures. The high hat among 
the peasant women was merely a belated 
fashion, taken from the townswomen of an 
earlier date. 

The culmination of costume in Meran was 
reached by the Saltner, the watchman of the 
vineyards, who was still to be seen some years 
ago in all his glory. His name was Teuton- 
ized from the Latin saltuarius, literally a 
forester, but by implication, also, guardian of 
any kind of field, pasture, or vineyard. He 
was made to look like a bandit, and to act 
as a scarecrow for birds, and especially for 
boys. He was, unfortunately, also used by 
mothers and nurses, to frighten their charges 

195 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

into obedience. He wore a leather jacket and 
leather breeches, a three-cornered hat, deco- 
rated with cocks' feathers, some squirrels' tails, 
fox tails, and Gamsbarten. In his hand he 
carried a rusty halberd. 

Some of the farmhouses near Meran lack 
the spick and span neatness of homes farther 
north, and show some of the picturesque slap- 
dash of those farther south. But it is to be 
remembered that many farmhouses in this dis- 
trict are actually the remnants of tumble- 
down castles, or the homes of former nobility, 
and such houses were not built originally to 
suit modern needs. 

The peasants of Meran are reported to eat 
five times a day, like the peasants in Switzer- 
land. Before work in the early morning, they 
take a Fruhmuss, at nine o'clock a Halbmit- 
tag, at eleven a regular Mittag, at three their 
Marende, and in the evening, before going to 
bed, a final supper. They eat a good deal of 
what they call Plenten (from the Italian 
polenta), either Weiss Plenten, corn meal, or 
Schwarz Plenten, buckwheat. 



196 



CHAPTER XXI 

ANDREAS HOFER ( 1 767 - 1 809 ) 

A PLAY is acted annually at Meran entitled 
" Tyrol in the Year 1809." The performance 
is in the open air. The scene setting repre- 
sents a Tyrolese mountain village, and the 
stage accommodates about four hundred per- 
formers, all chosen from Meran or the imme- 
diate neighbourhood, some of these people, 
indeed, being descendants of the men who 
fought in the national uprising of that year, 
1809. The scenes are portrayed much as 
Defregger has portrayed them on his masterly 
canvases. In the last act the village school- 
master, surrounded by young and old, tells 
the story of Andreas Hofer's leadership and 
martyrdom. 

It is well that the struggle of this simple 
peasant should be retold every year, lest at 
any time his countrymen should forget the 
rarest and most heroic figure in their history. 
Ah, that year 1809! Napoleon had by that 

197 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

time fastened himself upon Europe; he was 
Europe. When the Archdukes Charles and 
John of Austria, brothers of the Austrian 
emperor, in a moment of genuine courage, 
summoned the great German race to take up 
arms against the Napoleonic supremacy, there 
was no response from the Danube to the 
Rhine, save in the mountains of the Tyrol. 
Of all the various branches of the German 
race, the Tyrolese alone heeded the summons. 
It was nobly pathetic. The nations of the 
plains, grown impotent with ceaseless war, 
looked on amazed, while Wordsworth sang 
encouragement to the mountaineers in his 
" Sonnets Dedicated to Liberty." 

The call to arms of the Archdukes Charles 
and John was read at all the inns and shoot- 
ing-stands of the country. Knots of grim 
sharpshooters gathered in the mountain forges 
to discuss ways and means, and to repair their 
weapons. Emissaries travelled through the 
valleys, recruiting men or collecting pro- 
visions and ammunition. Many devoted 
patriots threw themselves unreservedly into 
the struggle. There was that Capuchin 
monk, Joachim Haspinger, and there was 
Joseph Speckbacher, the chamois hunter. 

But the foremost leader of all was Andreas 
198 



Andreas Hofer 

Hofer, innkeeper in the Passeier valley. His 
appearance is easy to reconstruct from the 
few portraits which have come down to us 
and from descriptions by fellow patriots. 
He was a man of large build, a trifle above 
middle height, with broad shoulders that were 
bent forward a little from carrying heavy 
loads. His face was wholesome and ruddy, 
his voice gentle. But his most striking pe- 
culiarity was his long, black beard, which 
often grew down to his belt. The Italian 
soldiers in French service nicknamed him 
General Barbone on account of it. His cos- 
tume was that of the Passeier valley, slightly 
changed to suit his personal taste. There 
was a jacket of green cloth, a red vest with 
wide green suspenders, black buckskin 
breeches, a wide leather belt bearing his 
initials, blue woollen stockings, and a wide- 
brimmed, black felt hat. To sum up, Andreas 
Hofer was a real peasant, and never hoped 
to be anything else, even when he became 
commander of the army and regent of the 
Tyrol. But he was by no means illiterate. 
He knew how to read and write — not so 
common an accomplishment a century ago 
among mountaineers. He could also speak 
Italian, besides his native German dialect 

199 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The Passeier valley opens northward from 
Meran; and when you have passed beyond 
the village of St. Martin with its frescoed 
houses, you reach a tract which the torrent of 
the Passer has more than once laid waste. 
Here Hofers inn stands by the roadside, 
opposite a big tree. The name is the Wirth 
am Sand, or the " Inn by the Gravel." Hofer 
was, therefore, commonly known as the Sand- 
wirth, or the " Gravel Innkeeper," by a form 
of contraction which sounds very comical to 
us, but is customary in the Tyrol. 

Andreas Hofer was born at the inn in 1767. 
His parents died when he was twenty-two, 
leaving him to carry on the business. As 
time passed, Hofer added to his regular occu- 
pation a commerce in grain, cattle, horses, 
wine, and brandy; he transported freight 
over the Jaufen Pass at the head of the valley, 
keeping as many as sixteen horses fo^ the 
purpose. In this manner he became known 
all over the Tyrol ; his honesty, good nature, 
and homely wit made him a universal favour- 
ite; so that when the revolt took place, he 
was one of the men to whom the peasants 
naturally looked as a leader. 

At the first sound of war, on the eleventh 
of April, 1809, Andreas Hofer crossed the 

200 




IN THE PASSEIER VALLEY 



Andreas Hofer 

Jaufen Pass with his brave comrades of the 
Passeier valley, and fell upon the town of 
Sterzing, forcing the garrison to flee. The 
French had not entered the field yet, and the 
place was held by Bavarian troops. Sterzing 
was extremely valuable to the Tyrolese, but 
was by no means easy to maintain. Bavarian 
reinforcements came up, and a struggle took 
place out on the plain of the Sterzingermoos, 
as it is called. At first the Tyrolese could 
make no headway against the Bavarian artil- 
lery. It was absolutely necessary to dislodge 
their cannon. Hofer, therefore, had three 
loaded hay-wagons driven forward, behind 
which his best sharpshooters could hide and 
pick off the Bavarian artillerymen. It is said 
that two fearless girls actually drove up the 
first two wagons. When a nation fights like 
that, it becomes irresistible! 

United with the Austrian troops which 
had entered the country in the meantime, the 
Tyrolese marched upon Innsbruck, driving 
the enemy before them, taking prisoners, and 
collecting booty of war. A triumphal entry 
into Innsbruck followed, to the indescribable 
joy of the whole population of the Tyrol. In 
a few days the peasants had captured two 
generals, 130 officers, almost six thousand 

201 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

men, seven cannon, and eight hundred horses, 
— in truth, a remarkable result for so short a 
campaign. There was not a hostile soldier 
to be found in the land nearer than Kufstein. 
In that fortress, however, the enemy still 
maintained themselves. And all this had been 
accomplished by the peasants alone, practi- 
cally unaided, — for the Austrian troops had 
been of little use, except to swell the numbers. 
So, when the bands of victors marched home 
again, what a jubilation there was in their 
native hamlets! 

But the fate of the Tyrol was inevitably 
linked to that of Europe in general. Napo- 
leon was all-powerful. A second time he 
took Vienna, and the Austrians were obliged 
to withdraw their troops from the Tyrol. 
Seeing the country open, a Bavarian army 
under General Wrede, and a French one 
under Marshal Lefebre, rapidly approached, 
and before the peasants could organize a 
proper defence, were once more in possession 
of Innsbruck. 

That was on the nineteenth of May, 1809. 
On the twenty-fifth, Andreas Hofer, having 
gathered an army of 6,800 men and six can- 
non, took up a position on Berg Isel overlook- 
ing Innsbruck. The first day of the battle was 

202 



Andreas Hofer 

indecisive. Both sides maintained their posi- 
tions for several days. On the twenty-ninth 
the battle was renewed by Hofer. For ten 
hours both sides fought with alternate gains 
and losses until nightfall. But during the 
night the enemy wrapped the wheels of their 
cannon and their horses' hoofs in rags, left 
their camp-fires burning, and stole quietly 
away, out of the country. 

Next morning the Tyrolese held their 
second triumphal entry into the capital of 
their beloved land. For the time being, even 
the news from the general European seat of 
war seemed favourable. Archduke Charles 
of Austria actually defeated Napoleon in the 
battle of Aspern. But shortly after came 
tidings of the murderous battle of Wagram, 
in which the tables were turned again. A 
humiliating truce was signed by Austria, 
which left the Tyrol exposed as before to 
foreign invasion. Marshal Lefebre promptly 
reoccupied Innsbruck. The country seemed 
indeed lost at last. Napoleon ordered Lefe- 
bre to disarm everybody. Archduke John 
wrote advising the peasants to submit, saying 
that a definite peace would soon be concluded 
between Austria and France, in which the 
interests of the Tyrol would be guarded as 

203 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

carefully as possible. It seemed a grim joke 
to the mountaineers, to ask them to let in the 
invaders without a struggle. They refused to 
believe that the Austrian emperor could 
counsel such cowardice. Andreas Hofer 
issued a proclamation in which he described 
this news of a truce as a piece of " devilish 
deceit." He called upon all patriots, old and 
young, to arm once more and fight for home 
and honour. Then the last band, the old fel- 
lows who had thought themselves of little use, 
came out to die for their country. They 
marched forth with ancient mediaeval weap- 
ons on their shoulders, long disused halberds, 
spiked clubs, or antiquated spears. They 
took leave of their old wives, as the younger 
men had parted from their sweethearts 
months before. Only the women and chil- 
dren and the wounded were left to look after 
their homes. Hofer called Speckbacher, the 
brave leader of the sharpshooters, and Has- 
pinger, the undaunted Capuchin monk, to his 
side. The three giants of the Tyrolese revo- 
lution stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder. 
Marshal Lefebre advanced from Innsbruck 
to overrun the country. For want of artillery, 
the Tyrolese erected what they called stone 
batteries, that is, above the roads they heaped 

204 



Andreas Hofer 

stones upon platforms which were supported 
only by one or two pieces of timber. When 
the right moment came, they knocked away 
the supports, and the whole mass came crash- 
ing down upon the helpless foe below. Lefe- 
bre, now known as the Duke of Danzig, had 
already had so much experience with the 
Tyrolese, that he preferred to send on his 
allies ahead, to reconnoitre. In this way it 
came about that a detachment of Saxons were 
the first to suffer from the fury of the peas- 
ants. Over two thousand Saxons were caught 
in a defile near Mittewald, and almost anni- 
hilated by the stone batteries and the re- 
nowned Tyrolese sharpshooters. Then 
Lefebre came up and received his beating. 
For three days he attempted in vain to dis- 
lodge the defenders. At one time the latter 
seemed to be getting the worst of it; but they 
recovered, and on the fourth day the newly 
created Duke of Danzig retired under a 
terrific fire upon Innsbruck. Hofer had 
posted detachments of sharpshooters in hiding 
all along the route, who thinned the ranks of 
the fugitives as they went. Lefebre himself 
would have been picked out by them, had he 
not disguised himself as a common soldier 



205 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

and walked on foot, sheltered between two 
mounted dragoons. 

On the thirteenth of August, 1809, Hofer 
and his army stood once more on Berg Isel 
to attack Innsbruck. It was Sunday. Early 
in the morning Hofer made a characteristic 
speech. The men cheered, and, as in the 
previous battles, the first day was undecisive. 
The two sides were more equally matched 
than usual, the enemy having only a slight 
preponderance numerically, but being, of 
course, far superior in artillery and cavalry. 
No action took place on the second day, and 
on the third the French, as once before, with- 
drew quietly with their allies. 

For the third time Hofer entered Inns- 
bruck. He was the hero of the hour. When 
delegations of students came to greet him with 
music and banners, the pious peasant reproved 
them in his rude dialect: " Now pray don't 
shout and make music; not I, not you, He 
above has done this." An irresistible popular 
demand soon showed itself to make him regent 
of the Tyrol, since Austria was unable to 
defend the country. At last Hofer yielded, 
addressing the multitude in the following 
speech : " Well, I greet you, my dear people 
of Innsbruck. As you insist upon my being 

206 



Andreas Hofer 

governor, here I am. But there are many by 
me who are not from Innsbruck. All who 
want to be my brothers in arms must fight for 
God, emperor, and country, as brave, good, 
and honest Tyrolese. Those who don't care 
to do that had better go home. My com- 
rades in arms won't leave me. Nor will I 
leave you, as true as my name is Andreas 
Hofer. Now I've said it, you've seen me, and 
so God bless you." 

Hofer, with considerable regret, took up 
his residence in the Castle of Innsbruck as 
regent of the Tyrol. They told him it would 
never do to have the head of the state living 
in an inn. His sovereign, the Emperor of 
Austria, now sent him the golden locket and 
chain, which is seen around his neck in his 
portrait. For six weeks he administered the 
affairs of the country with great simplicity 
and shrewdness, spending next to nothing 
upon himself. When he drove, however, he 
used a four-horse carriage, captured from a 
French general. Morning and evening he 
went to church. Priests and peasants always 
had free approach to him, but other persons 
had to be announced. His greatest difficulty 
was in raising money for the current expenses 
of the country, since it was practically ex- 

207 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

hausted from continual war. He had silver 
and copper currency coined, which had on 
one side the Tyrolese eagle and on the reverse 
the Madonna. So little of this money was 
coined, however, and of that little so much 
was later melted back into Austrian money, 
that the few pieces in existence are excessively 
rare. 

On the fourteenth of October, 1809, Austria 
finally concluded the Peace of Vienna, which 
definitely sacrificed the Tyrol to Bavaria. It 
was the culminating humiliation which Na- 
poleon inflicted upon Austria, forcing her to 
sacrifice a full third of her territory. 

In those days news travelled slowly and un- 
certainly. Hofer and his followers refused 
to believe the first reports of this abandon- 
ment, and when the Bavarians and French 
crossed the frontier to take possession, 
promptly engaged them. It took an auto- 
graph letter from Archduke John to make 
them pause. The moment was decisive in 
Hofer's career. Should he obey the imperial 
mandate, or carry out the task to which he 
had vowed himself? In this predicament, 
Hofer, for the first and last time, lost his head. 
Fine distinctions between duty and honour 
were too much for him. The carnage was 

208 



Andreas Hofer 

ready which was to take him to surrender, 
when Haspinger, the Capuchin monk, rushed 
up and told him that the news about the 
humiliating Peace of Vienna was a lie, that 
Archduke John would soon come to their 
help. To add to the impression created by 
these words, the messenger who brought the 
autograph letter fell in a fit, as if under pun- 
ishment for telling a lie. Instead of surren- 
dering, Hofer called the country to arms. 
But a few days later, finding that the news of 
the peace was correct, he issued a proclama- 
tion of surrender. In this manner he wavered 
several times, torn hither and thither by con- 
flicting reports. Finally he withdrew into 
his native valley to fight it out to the death. 

He crossed for the last time over the Jaufen 
Pass, where he had travelled many a time as 
boy and man with his wares. To show the 
pressure to fight which was brought to bear 
upon him, it should be related how, in his 
native valley, a man came to him with loaded 
rifle, and said: " Andreas, now say, will you 
or will you not? You began it, you must carry 
it out. This rifle is as good for you as for any 
Frenchman." 

In the neighbourhood of Meran the Tyro- 
lese won their last stubborn victories over the 

209 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

French, displaying a power of resistance 
which astounded all Europe, crushed as it 
was under the heel of Napoleon. It caused 
Wordsworth to exclaim: 

u A few strong instincts and a few plain rules 

Among the herdsmen of the Alps have wrought 
More for mankind at this unhappy day, 

Than all the pride of intellect and thought." 

One of these victories was won near Castle 
Tyrol, as if by poetic justice, in the very heart 
of the country's history, at the meeting-place 
of its races. The French were driven from 
the Kuchelberg, and finally surrounded. In 
one place a detachment of French soldiers 
was entrapped between the peasants and a 
precipice. Rather than face their infuriated 
foe, these prisoners stepped to the edge of the 
precipice, and, horrible to relate, actually 
jumped, one by one, to a certain death below. 
In the end the surviving French army was 
obliged to evacuate Meran, with a loss of 
1,200 men. 

But that was not all. Another victory was 
in store for the Tyrolese before the end of the 
war. In the same night in which the French 
evacuated Meran, a French company, know- 

210 



Andreas Hofer 

ing nothing of the defeat of their comrades, 
crossed the Jaufen Pass, and stopped at the 
village of St. Leonhard. Here they were 
hemmed in, four hundred of them were cut 
down, and the rest made prisoners. 

With this the end of the war had come. 
From all sides the French poured into the 
country with reinforcements. The Tyrolese, 
overpowered by superior numbers, withdrew 
to the mountains. Every night their watch- 
fires were seen to climb higher and higher 
up the slopes, until they glowed from the 
summits themselves. On the noble peaks near 
Meran were kindled some of the last signals 
of revolt; in the woods were gathered some 
of the last knots of undaunted patriots, who 
did not know what it was to surrender. They 
preferred to starve or to be sought out, so 
that they could sell their lives dearly. The 
new French commander, Baron d'Hilliers, a 
humane man, who had conceived a strong 
admiration for Hofer, tried hard to save the 
national hero. He sent word to him that he 
would beg for his pardon at headquarters, if 
Hofer would only persuade the people of his 
valley to surrender. But Hofer paid no at- 
tention to these overtures. His soul was filled 
with a nameless sadness. On the second of 

211 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

December he climbed to the highest pasture 
on the mountain opposite his home, and hid 
there in a barn with his faithful clerk Sweth. 
Baron d'Hilliers issued a proclamation, 
saying: 

" Men of the Tyrol, spare me the sorrow of 
punishing you. ... I ask nothing of you, but 
that you remain quietly in your houses. Your 
property, your persons, your religion, laws, 
customs, all your privileges shall be respected; 
but those who break their word to me shall 
be destroyed." 

Andreas Hofer, however, remained in hid- 
ing in his lofty retreat; and a price of 1,500 
florins was placed upon his head. A com- 
memoration tablet now marks the hut, sacred 
to all Tyrolese patriots, where the defeated 
peasant commander spent almost two months 
during the winter of 1809-10. Here 
his wife and son joined him, having been 
obliged to flee from their hiding-place. Here, 
too, at last, the whole party was betrayed and 
captured. Hofer was to become not only 
a patriot, but a martyr. Some man of the 
Passeier valley was tempted by the blood- 
money to tell the French commander at 
Meran of Hofer's hiding-place. And so it 
was that, at four o'clock in the morning of 

212 





INNS IN THE PASSEIER VALLEY 



Andreas Hofer 

the twenty-eighth of January, 1810, six hun- 
dred Italian soldiers in the French service 
surrounded this hut and surprised its occu- 
pants. The snow was deep at that altitude. 
The soldiers dragged forth Hofer, his wife, 
his boy, and the clerk, bound them and took 
them down into the valley. 

The brutal soldiery could now vent their 
hatred upon the defenceless hero. They 
pulled out great handfuls from his beard, so 
that his face was bleeding and his hair frozen 
into a bloody mass. But no word of pain 
escaped from Hofer's lips. He merely com- 
forted his dear ones. " Be brave and be pa- 
tient," he said to them ; " in this way you can 
absolve yourselves from some of your sins." 
On the way the sad party passed their old 
home, the Gravel Inn, which was plundered. 
In Meran the people wept loudly as their 
hero passed. He was given a hearing before 
the commander Huard. To the latter he said 
simply that he was indeed the author of the 
Tyrolese revolt; that he had been called to 
do this by his Majesty, the Emperor of Aus- 
tria; that he would have surrendered after 
the Peace of Vienna had not his followers 
threatened him with death if he did not con- 
tinue the struggle. 

213 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Next day the prisoners were transported 
to Bozen, where D'Hilliers ordered Hofer's 
wife and boy to be liberated at once, and the 
prisoner to be treated with greater care. On 
the fifth of February, Hofer and his clerk 
arrived at the fortified city of Mantua in 
Northern Italy, having received endless tes- 
timonies of love and respect from the peo- 
ple on the way. Bisson, commander of the 
fortress, offered him freedom if he would 
enter the French army; but Hofer only an- 
swered: " I was, I am, and always shall be 
true to the house of Austria and to my em- 
peror." A few days later Hofer was tried 
by court martial. No decisive verdict could 
at first be obtained. Word was sent to Napo- 
leon, at that time stationed in Milan; and 
immediately there came from him the reply: 
" Andreas Hofer must be shot within twenty- 
four hours." 

Napoleon probably feared that the Em- 
peror Francis might request clemency, and 
it would have been embarrassing to refuse 
such a favour from a brother emperor. Ho- 
fer received his death-sentence calmly, and 
when the time came strode firmly to his mar- 
tyrdom. His fellow prisoners and wounded 
comrades clung to him as he passed. He 

214 



Andreas Hofer 

begged their forgiveness if he had been the 
cause of their misery. 

At eleven o'clock on the morning of Feb- 
ruary the twentieth, 1810, the drums beat on 
the bastion of Mantua. Hofer stood in the 
centre of a square of soldiers. He prayed a 
few moments with the attendant priest, then 
stood up and faced his executioners. They 
offered him a handkerchief to bind over his 
eyes. He refused it. They ordered him to 
kneel, but he said : "I am going to give my 
soul to God standing." He is said to have 
cried, " Long live Emperor Francis," and 
then himself gave the word of command, 
"Fire!" Six bullets entered his body; but 
he only sank to his knees, — they did not kill 
him. Six more bullets failed to put an end 
to his life. Then a soldier stepped forward 
and, placing the barrel of his musket close to 
Hofer's head, gave him a final thirteenth bul- 
let. Little further remains to be said of the 
hero. Like a real peasant and innkeeper, 
his last words to the world are contained in 
a letter giving orders for a memorial service 
and wake, to be held in his native village of 
St. Martin at the Inn of the Unterwirth. The 
letter was written at five o'clock in the morn- 
ing before his execution. In it he comforts 

215 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

his wife, and begs all his friends for their 
prayers; then he specifies that each mourner 
at the inn shall be served with soup, meat, 
and a half-measure of wine. Below are added 
the following words, which deserve to be- 
come classic: "Farewell, base world; it is 
so easy for me to die that not even a tear 
comes to my eyes." 

The good-natured innkeeper and the obsti- 
nate fighter died for his country in a manner 
so dramatic that the world is destined to re- 
member him only as a glorified personifica- 
tion of patriotism, as the great national hero 
of the Tyrol. 



216 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE VINTSGAU 

SOME morning start out of Meran in the 
early dawn for the long journey up the Vints- 
gau. 

A turn of the road gives us our last glimpse 
of the exquisite region in which the city lies, 
surrounded by its orchards, vineyards, and 
groves of great trees. Castle Tyrol disap- 
pears and a new world opens westward, a 
world of contrasts. Dreary wastes alternate 
with fertile gardens; swamps with peaks of 
pure white; and hovels of poverty with cas- 
tles of luxury; modern industries are found 
side by side with historic ruins; on this side 
are rocks scorched bare by the sun, and on 
that upland pastures, kept ever green by the 
melting snow, — such is the impression the 
Vintsgau produces on the visitor. 

The name of Vintsgau itself is full of his- 
toric meaning. It recalls a Raetian tribe of 
the name of Venosti; and the latter part, the 

217 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

word " gau," is a reminder of Charlemagne's 
scheme of imperial organization into Gaue 
or counties. The Vintsgau was a county of 
the great German Empire. Many of the 
Vintsgau's names of places show a Raeto- 
Roman origin, but its civilization has been 
Teutonic for many centuries. 

The Etsch has given trouble by reason of 
its propensity for breaking bounds, for the 
torrents from the lateral valleys quickly swell 
it to a dangerous stream. But the houses that 
are swept away one year are rebuilt the next, 
and new crops are grown on the old sites. 

The village of Naturns lies near the en- 
trance of the narrow lateral Schnalserthal. 
High above Staben the superb castle of Juval 
rears a defiant front. Then comes the ruined 
chateau of Castelbell on the level of the high- 
way. Crossing the Etsch, we reach the vil- 
lage of Latsch, and presently the Martellthal 
opens on the south. At the mouth of that 
valley stand the castles of Unter- and Ober- 
Montan. 

It was at Montan that Beda Weber, the 
Tyrolese antiquarian, is reported to have 
found the so-called Berlin manuscript of the 
Nibelungenlied. He bought it for ten 
gulden, including under that price a num- 

218 



The Vintsgau 

ber of other early manuscripts and precious 
books. Beda Weber sold his Nibelungenlied 
to a book dealer, named Asher, for about three 
hundred gulden. Asher resold it in England 
for two thousand dialers, and last of all it 
was bought back in Berlin for a very large 
sum, said to have been £2,000. It is a very 
beautiful version on parchment, dating from 

1323- 

Schlanders rejoices in opulent chestnut 
and walnut trees. It is the centre of quite 
an export trade in fruit, notably in peaches 
and apricots. The pointed church steeple 
rises far above the low roofs of the cottages; 
sheaves of wheat stand in the fields by the 
roadside; the farther mountains beckon; and 
a touch of their exhilaration reaches us even 
in the sun-baked Vintsgau. 

Near Laas are extensive marble quarries. 
They appear on the side of the Laaserthal. 
The highway for many miles toward Meran 
is white with dust, like powdered sugar, 
which comes from the droppings of this 
Laaser marble as it is carted over the road. 
As building material it is gaining constantly 
in favour. It is being extensively used in 
Munich and Vienna. It has given statues to 
Stuttgart and Dusseldorf, and has gone as 

219 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

far as London and the United States. It is 
beginning to compete successfully even with 
Carrara marble itself, although the expense 
of transportation is very great. 

As we journey along the Vintsgau we find 
ourselves constantly passing or meeting can- 
vas-covered carts, pulled sometimes by men 
and women, but occasionally by a donkey or 
a superannuated horse. 

These are the carts of the Dorcher, or Tyro- 
lese peddlers. They are found principally in 
the Upper Inn valley and the Vintsgau. The 
Dorcher peddle fruit, hardware, brooms, and 
wooden household implements. The carts are 
their homes. Frequently a man and wife pull 
together in the traces, the older children push 
behind, the babies rock under the canvas cov- 
ers, and the cooking utensils dangle beneath. 

At Neu-Sponding the road to the Stelvio 
Pass and the glories of the Order branches 
off toward the south. For the present our 
way lies northward into the Upper Vintsgau, 
a region which has a certain sombre fascina- 
tion of its own, with its great stretches of pas- 
ture-land and its solemn historic recollections. 

The village of Schluderns has the castle of 
Churburg above it, which has been in the 
possession of the Counts Trapp since 1440. 

220 



The Vintsgau 

Across the valley from Schluderns is seen the 
great castle ruin of Lichtenberg, which con- 
tains frescoes of the fourteenth century. 

Off there in the plain gleams little Glurns, 
fit for a mediaeval medallion. Imagine, in 
this day of sprawling villages, a tiny town of 
nine hundred inhabitants, completely enclosed 
by wall and towers, a feudal plaything set 
down on the green, and three thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. Inside there is 
little of interest, except the construction of 
the town itself. It was pretty thoroughly 
burned out and plundered in 1499 by the men 
of Graubunden, and in 1799 by the French. 

A hill near Tartsch has yielded a good har- 
vest of bronze objects. A little church stands 
on the top now, but antiquarians believe that 
the hill was once the site of a Raato-Roman 
fortified camp, and perhaps of a temple as 
well. In our day the largest horse and cattle 
market of the Vintsgau is held there annually, 
on the 15th of June. 

Mais is a sort of a wonder village with 
towers. Beyond it stretches the great upland, 
called the Malserheide, with its three lakes, 
which together form the source of the Etsch. 

After St. Valentine auf der Heide, the road 
reaches its culmination at Reschen Scheideck, 

221 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the watershed between the Black Sea and the 
Adriatic, or more immediately between the 
valleys of the Inn and the Etsch (Italian 
Adige). 

On the other side of the watershed, Nau- 
ders is the point where the much-travelled 
road to the Engadine, via Martinsbruck, 
branches off. 

A few more miles, and we find ourselves 
engrossed in the attractions of the Finster- 
miinz Pass, to which allusion has already been 
made. 



222 



CHAPTER XXIII 

ABOVE THE SNOW LINE 

THE extraordinary amount of touring and 
climbing which the German-Austrian Alpine 
Club, the all-pervading D. O. A. V., has made 
possible has resulted in dividing the tourists 
into classes and sub-classes, with a nomencla- 
ture to fit the case. 

There are the mere Sommerfrischler, the 
summer boarders, who merely take walks. 
Then come the class of Passebummler, pass 
loafers, sometimes also called Jochfinken, 
saddle-birds, who travel over the passes. The 
next class are the Hochtouristen, the high 
tourists, who travel over the peaks, and are 
also called Bergkraxler, or mountain-scram- 
blers. 

The German-Austrian Alpine Club has 
marked the principal paths in the Tyrol, so 
that the novice may find the way by follow- 
ing the signs of paint on the trees and rocks. 
Imagine the usefulness of a club which is 
223 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

continually opening up new paths, setting up 
numerous directions and finger-posts, secur- 
ing reduced railroad rates for its members, 
holding examinations for guides, helping to 
support them if they become invalided, and 
pensioning their widows if they die, spend- 
ing large sums in glacial, geological, and 
meteorological observations, encouraging re- 
searches into local dialects and into the names 
of places, establishing gardens of Alpine 
plants, erecting towers, issuing superior maps, 
and publishing annually a literature of its 
own. 

The club is really a vast cooperative asso- 
ciation. Its aim is touring made easy. 

The shelter-huts, for example, illustrate this 
feature. They are owned by the various sec- 
tions of the club, and are generally named 
after these sections, or after some noted Al- 
pine climber. 

Those of the first order are really hotels. 
They have resident attendants who do the 
cooking and serving, and supply the guests 
with every reasonable luxury. Members of 
the D. O. A. V. get reduced rates, while the 
guides do not pay for their lodging, and can 
buy provisions at cheap prices. 

The huts of the second order have no resi- 
224 



Above the Snow Line 

dent attendants, but are kept stocked with 
supplies. The prices of the different articles 
are posted on the wall. The tourist makes 
out his own bill, enters it into a book, and puts 
the money into a special money-box. 

There are huts of the third order, which are 
mere shelters without supplies. 

In point of fact, the enormous influence of 
the German-Austrian Alpine Club in foster- 
ing the spirit of brotherhood, and creating a 
better understanding between the different 
branches of the great German family, de- 
serves to be carefully noted by every student 
of modern politics. It is really helping to 
bind the Germans of the two empires more 
closely together, by giving them a common 
subject for enthusiasm outside of politics. 

Every full-fledged guide carries a book, 
containing a personal description of himself, 
a set of rules, and a list of tours with the reg- 
ular tariff*. 

The climbing fashion lends itself easily to 
irony. But even its most extravagant phases 
proceed from the natural desire of man to 
conquer and to overcome obstacles. The Berg- 
kraxler, the mountain-scrambler, may be de- 
scribed as a man who is looking for trouble. 
If a mountain is too easy as it stands, it must 

225 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

be made difficult. He avoids the natural ap- 
proach. He looks for an exposed ridge, a 
crumbling ice-crust, or a couloir, where stones 
may be expected to fall. When he has dis- 
covered a new and perilous ascent, the next 
thing is to turn it into a descent. It is the 
fashion now to see how many peaks can be 
ascended in a given time. Regular records 
are kept and entered into the Alpine journals. 
There are records also for the longest stay 
above the snow line, for the greatest number 
of peaks, passes, and ridges conquered in one 
combination, for work performed at night 
and even in winter. The new school of climb- 
ers expects its members to wander about 
among the heights, performing prodigies of 
agility and endurance. Women, too, are en- 
tering into the contest. 

The culmination sought by the expert rec- 
ord-maker is to effect a combination of every 
possible form of conquest in one tour. He 
tries to ascend the greatest number of the most 
difficult peaks by the most difficult routes; 
and to string them together by the most dan- 
gerous ridges, — all this in one day, and, if 
possible, without a guide. 



226 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE ORTLER: THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN 
THE TYROL 

The Order was first ascended on the 27th 
of September, 1804, by a chamois hunter, 
Joseph Pichler, from the Passeierthal. In 
1805, 1826, and 1834 further ascents took 
place; then, after a long interval, during 
which a number of unsuccessful attempts were 
made, the English climbers, F. F. Tuckett and 
H. E. Buxton, reached the top in 1864. It is 
pleasant to know that one of the peaks in the 
Order group is called the Tuckettspitze. In 
1865 Edmund von Mojsisovics made the as- 
cent, and later in the same year Julius von 
Payer, an Austrian officer of engineers, who 
was better known later as an Arctic explorer. 
Finally, in 1867, trie ascent was made by an 
Englishwoman, a Miss Hitt. Since then the 
number of climbers has increased year by 
year. At least ten routes to the top are now 
known, and all the other peaks of the group 

227 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

have been ascended, chief among them being 
the Konigspitze and the Zebru. There are 
said to be six routes up the Konigspitze alone. 
The Order, the Konigspitze, and the Zebru 
have been traversed in one day by a party 
without guides. Another party has done thir- 
teen peaks of the first class in this group in 
one day, also without guides. New records 
are being constantly established. 

The Order group owes its present popular- 
ity to the three pioneer climbers already men- 
tioned, to Payer, Tuckett, and the geologist, 
Edmund von Mojsisovics. Their maps and 
published accounts spread the fame of the 
Order to the eager members of the climbing 
fraternity. 

The usual route up the Order, which is 
reckoned as " easy " by the high tourists, is 
from Trafoi to the Payerhiitte, which is 
perched on the edge of the snow and ice. 
Thence to the top and back to the hut, and 
down on the other side to Sulden, by way of 
the Tabarettawande. Of course this route is 
as often also taken in the reverse direction, 
from Sulden to Trafoi. 

In driving from Prad in the Vintsgau by 
Gomagoi to Trafoi, it is interesting to notice 
in passing that the origin of these names is 

228 



The Ortler 

Latin. Prad is short for pradum, a field or 
plain. Gomagoi is from gemince aquce, the 
twin waters, since the torrents from Sulden 
and Trafoi unite there. Trafoi itself is an 
evident contraction for tres fontes, three foun- 
tains. 

The three fountains of Trafoi lie less than 
an hour's walk from the village, where a little 
chapel was built in 1643. 

My guide and I entered the Payerhutte in 
the evening, just as the valleys were disap- 
pearing in a tender blue dusk, and the snow 
above was glowing with the setting sun. The 
Payerhutte is a characteristic German and 
Austrian Alpine Club hut of the first class. 
It was built by the Section Prague in 1875, 
and named in honour of Julius von Payer. 
So great is its popularity that it has been re- 
peatedly enlarged to accommodate the grow- 
ing number of enthusiastic visitors who seek 
its welcome shelter during the climbing sea- 
son. 

Outside the air was keen and Alpine, but 
inside a warm and comfortable atmosphere 
made us quickly feel at home. 

In the early dawn we crept out upon the 
path that leads to the ice and snow of the 
summit. 

229 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The weather had been unusually dry, so 
that there was actually a drought in the val- 
leys below. No rain had fallen in them for 
many weeks, and no snow upon the peaks. 
The slopes of everlasting snow, by daily thaw- 
ing and nightly freezing, had turned icy, and 
we found it necessary to put on cramp-irons, 
or spikes, to keep from slipping. 

The view from the top consisted of a white 
effulgence toward the north, and a black va- 
pour toward the plain of Lombardy. The 
Alps stood up to be counted, from the Gross- 
glockner to Monte Rosa. A solemn radiance 
enveloped the farther peaks on the sky-line, 
the nearer ones glistened with their crusted 
sides. The Order group itself broke all 
around into fantastic forms, blue gulfs and 
staring pinnacles. And below, the world of 
the Vintsgau, of Trafoi and Sulden, of the 
zigzagging Stelvio road, and of the profound 
Italian valleys, was yawning, stretching, and 
getting ready for another day's work. Here 
the Teuton, there the Latin. Here the pine, 
there the olive. Two races meeting along a 
wavering mountain line, and learning to live 
together in a mutually helpful and beneficial 
relationship of true brotherhood. 

The return to the Payerhutte was a hop, 
230 



The Ortler 

skip, and a jump over the snow, and a careful 
picking of steps down the icy crust. Then 
came the path down to Sulden over the once 
dreaded Tabarettawande. This path has been 
much improved by the Prague Section of 
the German-Austrian Alpine Club, so as 
to render it safe and practicable for the aver- 
age visitor. 

By noon I was down in Sulden, and had 
paid off my guide, but so great was the rush 
of visitors during this heated term that, when 
I asked for a room at the hotel, I was in- 
formed that I might put my name down for 
a mattress in the dining-room; perhaps there 
would be a vacancy there before night, but 
a private room, a separate room, was unfor- 
tunately out of the question. 

Sulden is a comparative newcomer among 
tourist resorts. A few decades ago some herd- 
ers lived there, clustered around a little chapel 
dedicated to St. Gertrude, and served by a 
priest, Curat Eller. The glacier which came 
down into the head of the valley was known 
vaguely as " At the End of the World." An 
occasional scientist, an officer on survey, or 
a cattle dealer, might penetrate there from 
time to time, but no tourist in the modern 
sense of the name. 

231 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Curat Eller and his two sisters, from small 
beginnings, in giving shelter to rare travellers, 
found it necessary to go into the hotel business 
itself. Then other hotels were built. Some 
of the herders of Sulden have been gradually 
transformed into guides, porters, and drivers. 
Walks have been laid through the larch and 
pine forests, across the summer pastures, and 
up the steep rocks to the ice-fields, and the 
German-Austrian Alpine Club has built its 
invaluable huts in the heights. 

The Konigspitze is immensely impressive 
from Sulden. It looks like a monster pyra- 
mid, and its summit is only a few feet below 
that of the Order. It was first ascended by 
the indefatigable Messrs. Tuckett and Buxton 
from the Italian side, but is now generally 
ascended from Sulden by the Schaubachhiitte. 
It has even been ascended by the tremendous 
snowy precipice which faces you, as you sit 
looking up comfortably from your hotel ve- 
randa. Human beings have actually climbed 
obliquely across that side of the pyramid to 
the top, and returned to tell of their audacity. 

In the afternoon I decided to walk quietly 
down to Gomagoi, and spend the night there. 
The dusk was just descending when I reached 
that place. The good kind lady stood on the 

232 



The Ortler 

door-step. There was an inviting smell from 
the kitchen. I took off my Rucksack. " I 
shall want to go to my room at once," I said 
to her. " I have come down from the Ortler 
to-day." The landlady looked pained: she 
had not a single room vacant, not even a bed 
anywhere. I would gladly have slept in the 
garret, or the laundry, or in a bath-tub, if 
there had been any unoccupied. 

It was nine o'clock that night when I 
reached Prad, having walked down from the 
top of the Ortler to the floor of the Vintsgau 
in one day, a difference of about ten thousand 
feet. 

The Stelvio Pass 

From the top of the Ortler the windings 
of a white road are visible reaching up from 
the Vintsgau over a great mountain saddle 
into Italy. This road from Prad over the 
Stelvio Pass to Bormio was not built for tour- 
ists. It dates from a time when travellers of 
this sort were neither numerous nor highly 
considered. The road was constructed by 
Emperor Francis I. for military purposes, as 
forming the shortest connection between the 
Tyrol and Milan, and was finished in the win- 
ter of 1824 " 2 5- 

233 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The Stelvio road {German Stilfserstrasse) 
has the reputation of being the highest car- 
riage pass in Europe, the top being 9,055 feet 
above the level of the sea. There was some 
fighting over the pass in 1848 between the 
Tyrolese and the Italian volunteers, and again 
in the years of 1859 and 1866. The road is 
open generally from the middle of June to 
the middle of October. 

The pass is named after a village which 
does not lie directly on the road, but on the 
mountainside near Prad, the village of Stilfs 
(Italian Stelvio). 

One of the noblest points of view is beyond 
Trafoi, at the Weisse Knott, where an obelisk 
was erected, in 1884, to Joseph Pichler, com- 
monly called Passeirer Josl, who made the 
first ascent of the Order in 1804. 

The station of Franzenshohe, above the 
timber-line, is protected from avalanches by 
a veritable forest of wooden stakes. The peo- 
ple of Glurns in the Vintsgau send their cattle 
here in summer, and keep a dairy next to the 
post building. Snow hens and marmots may 
be seen in the neighbourhood, but rarely 
during the tourist season. Both Trafoi and 
Franzenshohe are said to be veritable happy 
hunting-grounds for collectors of rare insects. 

234 






The Ortler 

A walk of ten or fifteen minutes from the 
top of the pass brings you to the hill known 
as the Dreisprachenspitze, the meeting-place 
of three languages, of German-speaking 
Tyrol, of the Romansch-speaking canton of 
Graubunden in Switzerland, and of the Ital- 
ian-speaking Val Tellina. 

Down on the other side lies Bormio, which 
the Germans call Worms, but that lies beyond 
the boundaries of the land of Tyrol. 



235 



ITALIAN TYROL 



CHAPTER XXV 

TRENT 

TRENT is of the same gray colour as the 
rocky soil from which it springs. It forms 
part and parcel of the mountains of limestone 
which look down upon it. 

After this first impression of colour in mon- 
otone comes one of form. The two domes of 
the cathedral, the campanile of Santa Maria 
Maggiore, the old episcopal Castello del Buon 
Consiglio, and some strong towers detach 
themselves and rise above the housetops to 
give the city outline and character. 

Trent, though in Austria, is Italian in 
speech and custom, and in the style of its 
architecture. It is scrupulously clean and 
orderly, and characterized by a certain pro- 
vincial repose and solidity. 

As we enter the city some leisurely bullock- 
wagons creep in and out, laden with casks of 
wine, or with cylindrical baskets full of 

2 39 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

salmon-coloured silk cocoons, or with blocks 
of marble from the quarries in the suburbs. 

There are over twenty-five thousand inhab- 
itants. The city is the political, military, and 
judiciary centre of the Trentino, and was once 
the wealthiest city in Tyrol. 

The square near the station is adorned with 
a notable statue of Dante, erected in 1896. 

The cathedral of Trent is a Romanesque 
basilica with two unequal domes. Four peri- 
ods of construction are known, included be- 
tween the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. A 
last restoration took place between the years 
1882 and 1889. The whole is considered by 
architects an interesting example of Lombard 
style, as affected by German influences. The 
interior is in the shape of a Latin cross. 
Among the monuments is a tombstone of the 
Venetian general, Roberto da Sanseverino, 
who was defeated at Calliano, in 1487, by the 
Tyrolese troops of Archduke Sigmund, Count 
of Tyrol. 

United to the cathedral is the old Palazzo 
Pretorio, now used for military offices. At 
the end of that rises the Torre Grande, which 
carries a famous old bell. 

In the cathedral piazza stands an elaborate 
fountain of Neptune, erected in 1769. 

240 



Trent 

In the Palazzo Municipale are gathered all 
the municipal offices, besides the library and 
museum. The library is rich in manuscripts 
and rare editions. Among other treasures it 
is said to preserve a Virgil of the eleventh 
century, the codex which goes by the name of 
Glagolita Clozianus. Unfortunately the li- 
brary is closed during the months of August 
and September, when travellers pass through 
Trent in greatest numbers. The museum, 
however, may always be visited. The latter 
has large collections of coins, medals, and 
seals, of special interest to students of local 
history, as well as cabinets displaying the 
fauna and flora and the mineral resources of 
the Trentino. The principal curiosities are 
an Etruscan inscription, a Roman tablet con- 
taining an edict of Claudius, described by 
Mommsen, and a number of valuable bronzes. 

Among the palazzi which have historic or 
artistic interest may be mentioned: 

The Casa Geremia (now Podetti), where 
Maximilian I. lodged in 1508, and the Cardi- 
nal Gonzaga during the third period of the 
Council of Trent. 

The Palazzo Galasso (now Zambelli) has 
been turned into a savings-bank. It is one 
of the handsomest houses in Trent, and was 

241 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

built in 1 58 1 by Georg Fugger, one of the rich 
Augsburg family of merchant princes. 

Palazzo Tabarelli is in Tuscan style. The 
designs are said to have been furnished by 
Bramante da Urbino. 

The Castello del Buon Consiglio was for- 
merly the residence of the prince bishops of 
Trent from the thirteenth to the nineteenth 
centuries. It is now used as barracks. The 
circular tower at the northern end is of 
Roman origin though restored in 1809. Dur- 
ing the military occupation of 1797 the castle 
was plundered by the soldiery quartered there. 
In 181 1 its vast frescoed halls were turned 
into dormitories and all that remained of the 
furnishings were sold at auction. The work 
of destruction and disintegration has long 
since been stopped and the interior is well 
worthy of a visit. Permission can be obtained 
of the officer in charge. 

The tower of the Castello del Buon Con- 
siglio offers an excellent view of Trent; so 
does the Doss Trento, a solitary hill on the 
right bank of the Adige. Permission from 
the military authorities, however, is necessary 
for this latter visit. 

Among the towers of Trent are also the 
Torre Verde, a round tower covered with a 

242 



Trent 

roof of green and yellow glazed tiles, and the 
Torre Vanga, a square tower built by a 
Bishop Vanga (1207-18). These doubtless 
formed part of the fortifications of the ancient 
city. 

A brand-new Palazzo della Giustizia gives 
shelter to law offices, public departments, and 
prison cells, and the great Caserne (barracks) 
Madruzze have accommodations for a whole 
regiment with all its belongings, while from 
the enormous Piazza d'Armi, the drill- 
ground, the blare of military trumpets fre- 
quently resounds into the surrounding homes 
and vineyards. 

The Council 

Why should a small provincial city in the 
Southern Tyrol have been selected as the meet- 
ing-place for a Church council, which was 
originally intended to regulate the ecclesi- 
astical affairs of the whole of Christendom? 
For the simple reason that in the sixteenth 
century Trent lay, as it lies to-day, in the 
borderland between German and Italian in- 
fluences; on Austrian soil, but containing an 
Italian-speaking population. 

It was reasonable to suppose that, in such 
243 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

a place, adherents of all parties could be 
brought together to discuss a modus vivendi. 

In 1545, the year during which the council 
really began its sittings, Charles V. was on 
the throne of Germany, seeking to restore the 
unity of the Church. Shortly before, he had 
met the Pope at Lucca in Italy to discuss the 
scope of the council, as well as the where and 
when of its convening. Trent was selected 
for the meeting-place as the result of a com- 
promise. In fact, apart from the scarcity of 
good lodgings, Trent proved well fitted for 
its historic function, being situated on the 
route from Innsbruck to Verona. 

As early as August of 1542, a few ecclesi- 
astics and their retinues arrived at Trent, but 
it was not until the following January that a 
beginning was made of opening the council 
with a scanty gathering of Italian prelates. 
The Spaniards and Germans were delayed by 
wars and rumours of wars. The council was 
soon prorogued so that it did not meet again 
until 1545. In fact, it is customary to date 
the opening of the council from that year. 

In 1552, Maurice of Saxony, having quar- 
relled with Emperor Charles, invaded the 
Tyrol. Panic seized the council; and most 



244 




SANTA MARIA 



MAGGIORE IN 
WAS 



TRENT, WHERE THE COUNCIL 
HELD 



Trent 

of its members fled, after reaffirming the de- 
crees previously passed. 

Ten years later, what was virtually another 
council met in Trent to initiate the so-called 
Counter- Reformation. 

According to all accounts, the sittings of the 
council were held, not in the cathedral, but 
in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, a 
handsome structure built of rust-red marble, 
with the ornamentation in the white marble 
of Trent. There is a mixture of styles, the 
Renaissance predominating. The fine cam- 
panile is Lombard. As it stands, the building 
dates from the years 15 14 to 1539, just before 
the assembling of the council. The interior, 
in contrast to the rather severe exterior, is dis- 
tinctly ornate. There is an organ-loft of ex- 
ceptional beauty, the work of one Vincenzo 
Vicentin, done in 1534. Its white marble 
balustrade and the supports are thickly cov- 
ered with decorative designs and bas-reliefs 
and statuettes of fine workmanship. Santa 
Maria Maggiore also contains several pic- 
tures, among others a reputed Tintoretto. 

A picture which makes no pretence of ar- 
tistic worth sets forth the members of the 
council in the order in which they sat: seven 
cardinals, three patriarchs, thirty-three arch- 

2 45 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

bishops, and 235 bishops. Their names are 
recorded below. 

On the south side of the church stands a 
column, erected in 1845 to commemorate the 
third centenary of the opening of the council. 



246 




STATUE OF DANTE IN TRENT 



CHAPTER XXVI 

DANTE IN THE TRENTINO 

THE statue of Dante in the square near the 
station of Trent suggests the question: Was 
Dante ever in the Trentino? 

Dante's wanderings during his years of ex- 
ile have always formed a fascinating study for 
speculative scholars. Italian cities have com- 
peted with each other for the honour of hav- 
ing harboured him, as the Greek cities did for 
the honour of having given birth to Homer, 
and as American houses pride themselves on 
having sheltered Washington. The descrip- 
tion of a glacier in the Inferno, XXXII., 
70-71, has even given rise to the supposition 
that Dante may have visited Switzerland. 
However that may be, there is considerable 
likelihood that Dante did set foot in the Tren- 
tino at least. 

This belief arises from certain references to 
the Trentino in the " Divina Commedia," 
such references as it would seem only an eye- 

247 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

witness could have made; likewise from 
Dante's intimate analysis of the Trentino dia- 
lect in one of his minor treatises, " De Vulgari 
Eloquentia." 

An Englishman, Henry Clark Barlow, 
seems to have been the first foreign scholar 
to discuss Dante's sojourn in the Trentino. 
In 1864 he published an article in the Athe- 
nceum on " Dante at Verona and at the Val 
Lagarina " (the Val Lagarina being the name 
given to the Lower Adige valley). 

Since that date other scholars have debated 
this same question. Some of their conclusions 
are set forth in a pamphlet entitled " Dante 
nel Trentino," by Eugenio Zaniboni, pub- 
lished at Trent in 1896. 

Zaniboni connects Dante's voyage in the 
Trentino with his first visit to Verona, soon 
after his expulsion from Florence. He places 
Dante's arrival in Verona sometime during 
the winter of 1302-03, and his visit to the 
Trentino between the end of March, 1304, 
and the middle of May. 

Verona at that time was under the rule of 
Bartolomeo Scaliger and one of the latter's 
special friends was Guglielmo di Castelbarco, 
whose possessions lay in the Trentino. Tradi- 
tion has fixed upon the castle of Lizzana, one 

248 



Dante in the Trentino 

of the Castelbarco properties, as Dante's place 
of abode in the Trentino. This castle, now 
in ruins, is situated on the east bank of the 
Adige, between Rovereto and Ala. 

Among Dante's references to the Trentino, 
the most striking is the following: 

" Qual e quella ruina, che nel fianco 
Di qua da Trento 1' Adige percosse 
O per tremoto, o per sostegno manco; 
Che da cima del monte, onde si mosse, 
Al piano, e si la roccia discoscesa, 
Ch' alcuna via darebbe a chi su fosse." 

— Inferno^ XII. (4-9). 

The ruina here mentioned is close to Liz- 
zana. It is the " Rovina di Marco," popularly 
called the " Slavini or Lavini di Marco." In- 
vestigators have not yet agreed among them- 
selves whether these Slavini are really the 
result of a landslide, which is said to have 
taken place here in 833, or whether they are 
only a moraine left by some prehistoric glacier 
in the valley of the Adige. The hamlet of 
San Marco is situated in the midst of this 
mountain debris. Little oases have been res- 
cued from the rocky desolation and planted 
with vineyards. Dante's description is so ac- 

249 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

curate that one presumes that he must have 
seen the ruina with his own eyes. 

Elsewhere Dante shows considerable knowl- 
edge of the topography of the Trentino. 

" In quella parte della terra prava 
Italica, che siede tra Rialto 
E le fontane di Brenta e di Piava." 

— Paradiso, IX. (25). 

The reference here is to two streams of 
Southern Tyrol: to the Brenta, which flows 
from the lake of Caldonazzo through the 
Valsugana into the Adriatic; and to the Piave, 
which rises in the Dolomites and, passing 
Pieve di Cadore, likewise empties itself into 
the Adriatic. 

A more obscure reference is the following: 

u Anzi che Chiarentana il caldo santa." 

— Inferno, XV. (p). 

Chiarentana has been identified by some 
commentators as the modern Canzana or Ca- 
renzana, a mountain which rises above the 
lake of Levico and stretches along the left 
bank of the Brenta. This identification, how- 
ever, is in no sense complete, and many com- 
mentators find it unsatisfactory. 

250 



Dante in the Trentino 

While these references therefore are un- 
doubtedly significant, they cannot be said to 
furnish proof positive that Dante set foot in 
the Trentino. At most, they establish a like- 
lihood of his having done so. 

There is also great probability that Dante 
knew Lake Garda. At least it is hardly cred- 
ible that any one who had not seen it could 
have written those great lines, beginning: 

" Suso in Italia bella giace un laco." 

— Inferno, XX. (6l). 

If Dante visited the Lower Adige valley 
and also Lake Garda it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that he must have crossed over the moun- 
tains which separate the one from the other. 
The common route from the Adige valley to 
Lake Garda is by way of the village of Mori, 
which is near the Castle of Lizzana, where 
Dante is reputed to have stayed. The route 
rises thence over the pass of Loppio, the prop- 
erty of the modern Counts of Castelbarco of 
Milan, to Nago, and thus to Torbole or Arco. 
This is the route which Goethe took more 
than four hundred years after Dante's sup- 
posed visit, and this is the same route which 



251 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

is followed by the modern railroad and the 
modern tourists. 

Now Zaniboni thinks that the Inferno had 
not yet been written when Dante made his visit 
to the Trentino, but that he went to work upon 
it soon after his return to Italy. Zaniboni 
believes that Dante took the notes on which 
the Inferno is based during this voyage. Cer- 
tainly the Inferno is full of descriptions of 
Alpine scenery, which read as though they 
must have been written from impressions or 
notes taken on the spot. 

Admitting, then, that Dante visited the 
Trentino and Lake Garda, and that he wrote 
the Inferno soon after his return to Italy, it 
is fair to suppose that the scenery of the moun- 
tains of the Trentino and of those surrounding 
Lake Garda must have influenced his descrip- 
tion of the Inferno. 

Most of the lower valley of the Adige is 
intensely impressive. Every object is on a 
vast scale, touched out in tragic whites and 
grays. The bare mountains, the glaring cliffs, 
the gravelly deserts, and the tracks of devas- 
tation are full of portent. 

Such scenery could not fail to have had its 
influence upon Dante, coming from the gentle 



252 



Dante in the Trentino 

and sweet hill country of Florence, and from 
the vast green plains around Verona. 

The pass of Loppio to Lake Garda is also 
immensely impressive, especially that view 
from Nago, where the whole of Lake Garda 
suddenly bursts into sight shimmering like the 
sea, and blue as a gentian. 

But there is another route from the Adige 
valley to Lake Garda, which must not be 
overlooked in this connection. That is the 
route from Trent, through the Buco di Vela, 
to Alle Sarche, and down by the Val Sarca to 
Lake Garda. The scenery from Alle Sarche 
to within sight of Arco is the dreariest, wild- 
est, and most piteous imaginable. Similar 
tracts of desolation are occasionally encoun- 
tered in the upper Alpine solitudes on the 
snow line, where neither tree nor blade of 
grass will grow, but nowhere else can I re- 
member finding such an effect down in a val- 
ley which is only a few feet above the level 
of the sea. 

At one point, near a hamlet called Pietra 
Murata, the Val Sarca becomes a veritable 
horror. The valley is full of mountain debris. 
A prehistoric glacier seems to have left mo- 
raines in its track. The mountains look as 
if they had stripped themselves of their super- 

253 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

fluous blocks and hurled them into the gray 
chasm. The ground is sterile and blighted. 
The heat is suffocating between the shadeless 
cliffs, which have split open here and there 
into ghastly gorges. Even when snow flies 
here in winter, it melts before it reaches the 
ground. Far up on a crag a castle stands 
against the sombre precipices, superb and de- 
fiant in its decay. 

It is not till Dro is reached that the tension 
is relieved. There a few mulberry-trees grow 
by the roadside, and vines and patches of corn 
thrive among the waste places. Then come 
some olive-trees shading the cliffs. The 
unique rock fortress of Arco looms up. The 
floor of the valley becomes smooth and as 
closely cultivated as a garden. We pass from 
the desert into a land of plenty, from the In- 
ferno into the Paradiso. Finally, the south 
wind, the thrice-blessed ora, meets us from 
Lake Garda, and we feel that we have been 
rescued indeed from a valley of desolation. 

Is it not possible that Dante saw the Val 
Sarca? Perhaps, instead of taking the cus- 
tomary route from Mori over Loppio to Tor- 
bole, he in reality passed from Trent by the 
Val Sarca to Torbole; or, perhaps again, he 



254 



Dante in the Trentino 

visited the Val Sarca from Torbole itself in 
an excursion to the north. 

Whatever may be the truth about " Dante 
in the Trentino," it would seem that the Val 
Sarca corresponds probably more closely to 
Dante's description of the Inferno, and to 
Dore's illustrations of Dante's work, than any 
stretch of Alpine ground from end to end of 
the great chain. 



255 



CHAPTER XXVII 

VALSUGANA 

The Valsugana is no longer an unfre- 
quented valley. The railroad from Trent to 
Tezze has revived a once much travelled 
route, which brings Venice perceptibly nearer 
to Germany. 

The Valsugana has an agitated history, as 
befits a valley situated between two races 
struggling for the mastery. It was known 
to the Romans, of course. A place called 
Ausuganea is marked on the Itinerary of An- 
tonine, where the village of Borgo now stands. 
Out of this Vallis Ausuganea finally came the 
contraction of Valsugana. 

During successive invasions by Goths, Lon- 
gobards, and Franks, the valley shared the 
fortunes of Trent. In 1027 Emperor Conrad 
II. (the Salian) divided the valley between 
the bishops of Trent and Feltre. There en- 

256 



Valsugana 

sued a kaleidoscopic struggle for supremacy 
lasting many centuries, in which these bishops, 
the Republic of Venice, the rulers of Verona 
and Milan, the Counts of Tyrol, and various 
local lords were involved. Out of this confu- 
sion the Counts of Tyrol slowly disengaged 
themselves as masters during the fourteenth 
century, and were followed by the Archdukes 
of Austria, who had inherited their posses- 
sions. In modern times also the Valsugana 
has seen much war. From 1796 to 18 13 it 
suffered at the hands of the French, and in 
1848 and 1866 at the hands of the Italians. 

The train mounts from Trent first with a 
big sweep and over a viaduct, as though to get 
its bearings, then up the rocky defile, at the 
bottom of which the Fersina runs swiftly. 
Looking back, Trent is seen lying in the plain. 
The vines grow luxuriantly on the lower 
flanks of the mountains, but in this southern 
land there are neither forests nor verdure to 
soften the harsh rocks above. There is a mo- 
mentary glimpse of snow on the Adamello 
to the west, and then the train puffs through a 
tunnel. 

Across the chasm of the Fersina lies the 
large fort of Civezzano. 



257 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Per gin e 

The railroad comes out upon a great up- 
land valley at Pergine, a valley where the 
distinctly southern, almost Oriental, aspect of 
the plain of the Adige merges itself into sce- 
nery of semi-Alpine character. The result is 
a new kind of landscape, peculiar to the Val- 
sugana, partaking of the north and the south, 
of the vine, the mulberry-tree, the chestnut- 
tree, and the waving corn, but, at the same 
time, of the pine forests and the green fields. 

A fine old castle looks down on Pergine. 
The place is busy with some silk-spinning fac- 
tories and other industries. It has a monthly 
cattle market, and at the station there is con- 
siderable local movement. 

At one time there was much mineral wealth 
in the neighbouring mountains, principally in 
copper, lead, silver, and iron. Many experi- 
enced German miners were imported by the 
resident lords. There was a guild of these 
Knappen. The Italians called them Canopi, 
and the mines Canope. Little by little, how- 
ever, the mines were abandoned. Some were 
exhausted, others, as they approached the 
point of exhaustion, could not be made to 
pay, partly from lack of transportation facil- 

258 



Valsugana 

ities, partly on account of the scarcity of fuel 
wherewith to reduce the ore. All available 
forests had been recklessly cut down. A guild 
of miners in Pergine lasted until this century, 
but now a birraria with the sign " Ai Canopi " 
alone recalls those old mining days. 

The Canopi shed an interesting light upon 
the existence of certain German-speaking 
communities in the Val Pine and Val Fie- 
rozzo or Val dei Mocheni, which runs north- 
ward from Valsugana. 

Here and there in these valleys traces of 
abandoned mines are to be found. For in- 
stance, the name of a place, Fornace, in Val 
Pine, speaks for itself. It was evidently the 
site of smelting-furnaces. 

In studying the origin of the German dia- 
lects in this Italian environment, the history 
of these German-speaking Knappen, or mi- 
ners, employed in the mines, must be taken 
into account. It is certain that they helped 
to keep alive the dialects, even if they did not 
actually introduce them into Val Pine and the 
Val dei Mocheni. 

The name Val Pine has been derived from 
Val Pineta, the pine valley. In former times 
its sides were covered with pines, but the large 
trees were cut down for fuel in the smelting 

259 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

works, and the small ones for sticks in the 
vineyards, and so the forests disappeared. 
The men now emigrate annually to find work 
in France, Germany, and even America, leav- 
ing the women at home to till the fields, a 
common practice throughout the Italian- 
speaking Alps. 

The Val Fierozzo or Val dei Mocheni 
branches off from the Valsugana at Pergine, 
and follows the Fersina to its source. These 
Mocheni speak a dialect which is a mixture 
of Old German and Italian. In order to help 
themselves out with their verbs, they con- 
stantly use as an adjunct machen, or mochen, 
as they pronounce it. Hence their nickname. 
They now all know Italian, the dialect being 
reserved for the family circle. 

Fierozzo, which has given its name to the 
valley, is claimed to be a corruption of the 
German Vier Hofen, four farms. 

Between Pergine and the lake of Caldo- 
nazzo lies a fertile stretch of cultivated land 
which was once a swamp, where reeds alone 
would grow. This was reclaimed by a cer- 
tain Tommaso Maier, whose name sufficiently 
indicates his Teutonic origin. 

The reclaimed lands were divided between 
Pergine itself and the adjacent villages of 

260 



Valsugana 

Vignola, Ischia, and Susa, every family re- 
ceiving a share. 

Levi co 

Taken all in all, Levico is a rich commu- 
nity. Besides certain mineral springs, it owns 
superb forests and juicy pasture-lands on the 
Dodici range opposite, doubly valuable in this 
denuded and barren part of the Alps. 

To-day Levico reaps the benefit of having 
strictly guarded its community rights during 
the past centuries. A torrent, known as the 
Rio, flows down through the town, gives life 
to a few mills, helps to clean the streets, and 
finally runs down between two rows of pop- 
lars to irrigate the fields in the plain below. 

The situation of Levico is full of natural 
beauties. Imagine a line of white houses 
against a southern slope. The little lake of 
Levico slumbers off to the west. A range of 
grim gray cliffs frowns from across the valley. 
The Valsugana bears of! toward the east with 
its streaks of cultivated land, its vines clam- 
bering up to the edge of the larch-trees, its 
ruined castles perched on projecting spurs. 
At noon the haymakers rest in the shade of 
the trees. A man in a donkey-cart drives 
along the sunny white road holding a great 

261 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

red parasol over his head. Yes, here we have 
an Italian environment, but with an Alpine 
touch! 

The Valsugana is getting to be a land of 
stabilmenti. There is another one at Ron- 
cegno, which looks most imposing from the 
train, and has a fine garden. 

Borgo is the capital of the Valsugana. It is 
so perfectly picturesque that it looks as though 
it had been made to order for a drop-curtain 
of the Italian scene description. 

There is a gathering of white houses and 
flat roofs on the level of the plain, and just 
behind them, about in the middle, a peaked 
hill rises by terraced vineyards to the gleam- 
ing white castle of Telvana. But one castle 
is not enough for Borgo, and so the very sum- 
mit of the hill is crowned by another tower, 
the ruins of Castle S. Pietro. 

As for the rest, Borgo makes no pretence 
of being a tourist resort. It leaves that task 
to the places which have regular stabilmenti. 
In the Valsugana the extremes which the tour- 
ists bring are quite apparent. The stabil- 
menti of the cure resorts offer everything 
which the most fastidious may require, but 
Borgo, the capital of the valley, though it 



262 



Valsugana 

gives the best it can afford, is primitive in 
comparison. 

The Val Tesino opens northward from the 
station of Strigno, a valley noted for the 
curious costume of its women and the migra- 
tory habits of the men. The main village is 
called Castel Tesino. 

The men of Tesino go out into the world as 
peddlers of chromos, religious books, and op- 
tical instruments. Exactly why they should 
choose these particular wares, it is hard to 
say. Some of these peddlers penetrate to dis- 
tant parts of the world. They pick up many 
languages, and they open stores of their own 
in Paris, London, and other world centres. 
The majority, however, especially those who 
own land at home, do not go so far afield, but 
return every autumn to spend the winter 
months, leaving the women, as elsewhere, to 
do the hard manual labour in the valleys and 
on the mountain flanks. 

Tezze is the last Austrian village. Be- 
yond that place stand the Italian custom- 
house and the fortifications of Italian Primo- 
lano. 



263 






CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE SETTE COMUNI I A TEUTONIC SURVIVAL ON 
ITALIAN SOIL 

THE highland district of the Sette Comuni, 
or the Seven Communities, forms part of what 
is virtually a spur of the Dolomite Alps, 
stretching southward into the great Italian 
plain, almost as far as Vicenza. Here a Ger- 
man dialect and Teutonic institutions survive, 
although on Italian soil and completely sur- 
rounded by Italian influences. 

Similar conditions prevailed until very re- 
cently among the Tredici Comuni, or Thir- 
teen Communities, which reach to the very 
gates of Verona; but the latter, according to 
last accounts, may now be described as entirely 
Italianized. 

As neither district has ever stood in the 
direct track of commerce or of tourist travel, 
visitors from the outside world have always 
been exceedingly rare, in spite of the fact that 
the great route from Verona to Innsbruck, 

264 



The Sette Comuni 

over the Brenner 2 runs close under the preci- 
pices to the west, and in the east, that favourite 
road into the Dolomites, the one from Bassano 
to Belluno and Cortina. 

Choosing a rough mountain track, the Me- 
nador di Levico, the writer started from the 
Valsugana, on Austrian soil, one early morn- 
ing in July, to mount to the table-land which 
promised so much from an historical and lin- 
guistic standpoint. 

Two hours and more of zigzagging up the 
shadeless and stifling cliffs of the Dodici 
range brings one suddenly, as by enchantment, 
into the fresh forests and parklike pastures 
of Vezzena, famous far and wide for a par- 
ticularly fine sort of cheese. German philolo- 
gists, with some show of reason, like to say 
that Vezzena is an Italian corruption of their 
own Wiesen, or fields. However that may be, 
I had no sooner crossed over the frontier into 
Italy, and entered the bleak Val d'Assa, than 
I came upon an unmistakable German name, 
an inn called the Ghertele. Not only was this 
German in general, but Schwabisch in partic- 
ular; for did not Gartele mean a " little gar- 
den," as any peasant in Wurtemberg, Baden, 
or German Switzerland would have told you 
at once? And, sure enough, the innkeeper's 

265 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

wife was hoeing in a potato patch, the only 
cultivated land for miles in any direction. 
Moreover, as I sat for awhile in the inn, the 
people of the house discussed me in a dialect 
which they knew as Gimbro, but which cer- 
tainly contained a great deal of Schwabisch. 

From the narrow defile of the Val d'Assa, 
after a walk of between eight or nine hours 
from Levico, I emerged in the early afternoon 
upon a vast table-land of grass, fringed by for- 
ests, — a plateau some three thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, which, as far as my 
experience goes in the Alps, is absolutely 
unique. The famous Seiser Alp, farther 
north in the Dolomites, is the only mountain 
pasture which can be named in the same 
breath; but that is more Alpine, and is not 
inhabited except during the haying season. 

In the land of the Sette Comuni the eye 
roams for many miles east and west over a 
rolling highland, green and joyous as of the 
north, spanned by a southern sky. Here and 
there clusters of houses appear on smooth 
knolls of ground ; men are seen mowing, and 
rows of women keep time with a rhythm of 
rakes; herds of cattle graze near and far, — 
the whole forming an idyllic dairy district, 
surrounded by a woodman's paradise. Sounds 

266 



The Sette Comuni 

carry a great distance over the plain, as over 
water, whether it be the lowing of cattle, the 
tolling of church-bells, or the singing of larks 
that soar exuberantly in the Italian sky above 
this bit of semi-Teutonic land. With the 
breath of the mountains in one's nostrils, it 
is hard to believe that, off there, to the south, 
only a few miles over the edge of this pasture, 
lie Verona and Vicenza, and all the other 
stuffy cities of the plain, sweltering in their 
glaring streets in the midst of vine-bearing 
and highly coloured Italy! 

The houses of the villages and hamlets in 
the Sette Comuni are distinctly un-Italian in 
appearance. For the most part they are 
thatched or shingled and peak-roofed in order 
to shed the snow in winter, betraying almost 
a Gothic tendency. There are no chimneys, 
so that the smoke from the hearth issues at 
some convenient window, and leaves a black 
trail up the side of the house. Moreover, 
these mountaineers do not seem to have that 
irresistible desire to paint their walls all col- 
ours of the rainbow, which somehow goes 
with the Italian temperament. On the con- 
trary, they are content to let the rough mortar 
of their houses weather into various natural 
shades of gray and drab. In truth, the farm- 

267 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

houses might belong equally well to Swabia, 
or to any region where thatched roofs and 
shingles still survive; certainly least of all 
to Italy, where such materials for building 
purposes are almost unknown. 

There are said to be about five months of 
snow on the level of the plateau in winter, 
but little wind and much sun, as in the resorts 
of the Engadine. The snow on the surround- 
ing heights, however, does not disappear en- 
tirely before the height of the summer. On 
the day of my arrival a destructive hail-storm 
broke over the district, and the slopes were 
white with hailstones until noon of the next 
day, which was the fourth of July. Curiously 
enough, too, when the weather breaks and the 
air darkens, a soft gray light sweeps over the 
level, as of England or the coast of Normandy. 
The smooth grass-lands become downs or 
dunes; one looks for the sea on the horizon, 
or windmills on the round hillocks. Take it 
all in all, therefore, the plateau of the Sette 
Comuni does not recall so much the Alpine 
life of Switzerland and the Tyrol, with its 
chalets and snow peaks, as some vast clearing 
in the Black Forest, into which the spirit of 
the English downs creeps when the weather 
is bad. Why the region has not long ago be- 

268 



The Sette Cotnuni 

come a grand summer resort for the cities of 
the Italian plain seems incomprehensible,— 
made to hand as it is! 

The names of the villages comprising the 
Sette Comuni are as follows: Rotzo, Roana, 
Asiago, Gallio, Foza, Enego, and San Gia- 
como di Lusiana, — all of Latin derivation. 
United to them were once nine villages, which 
went by the designation of Contrade Annesse, 
or annexed districts: Campese, Campolongo, 
Oliero, Valstagna, Valrovina, Vallonara, Cro- 
sara, San Luca, Conco, and Dossanti. Until 
recently the latter appear to have stood to the 
Seven Communities in much the same relation 
as the allied and subject lands of the Swiss 
Confederation once stood to the Thirteen 
original States. 

Of the total population, numbering over 
thirty thousand, the greater number are 
engaged in cattle-breeding, cutting lumber, 
charcoal-burning and straw-plaiting. Many 
of the men, also, as elsewhere in the Italian- 
speaking Alps, go out into the world as ped- 
dlers, leaving the women at home to do the 
field work. It has been found that a knowl- 
edge of Cimbro is of real service to these 
peddlers in making all other German dialects 
they may encounter in their wanderings easy 

269 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

to learn. As for the rest, one cannot say that 
the type of the people is in the least German; 
on the contrary, it is to all appearances as 
Italian as possible, and often very handsome. 

The principal historical function, per- 
formed by these homines teutonici in the past, 
was to act as an advance-guard of the Venetian 
Republic against encroachments from the 
north; while to-day the Italian kingdom val- 
ues the district mainly for its strategic posi- 
tion on the frontier of the Austrian Empire. 

Most of the documents relating to the 
period from the tenth to the fifteenth century 
were lost in a fire of Asiago. Since the fall 
of the Venetian Republic the remaining ar- 
chives have for the most part been scattered 
to the winds ; stolen when they seemed to pos- 
sess value; burned in bonfires on holiday 
nights; or worse than all, sold for a song, to 
be used as wrapping-paper in meat and sau- 
sage shops! I myself can testify to the care- 
lessness displayed in this regard, for in a room 
which once formed part of the large hall of 
the government, and is now used for a little 
museum, I saw drawers full of parchments, 
thrown in pell-mell, some bearing the seals 
and signatures of the Doges of Venice. 

For some years past all the inhabitants of 
270 



The Sette Comuni 

the district have learned Italian as well as 
Cimbro, so that at the present time the Ger- 
man dialect is in a sense a special accomplish- 
ment. It is to be found only in four of the 
seven communities: in Asiago, Foza, Roana, 
and Rotzo; and then is used mostly in the 
family circle and by old people. 

Italian scholars of the seventeenth century, 
and even later, generally accepted the theory 
of a Cimbrian origin. 

An amusing story is told of Frederick IV., 
King of Denmark and Norway, who paid 
a visit to Asiago in 1709. It appears that, 
while travelling incognito in Italy, as Count 
of Oldenburg, and accompanied by a suite 
of fifty-four courtiers, he made a stay of a 
week at Vicenza. On one occasion, his court- 
iers, strolling about the town, were surprised 
to come upon some men speaking a German 
dialect. Upon inquiry, the peasants explained 
that they were from the Sette Comuni, and 
were speaking Cimbro. That evening, at din- 
ner, the curious meeting was mentioned in 
conversation, and next day Frederick, as king 
of the land which was supposed to be the orig- 
inal seat of the Cimbri, decided to pay a visit 
to the interesting upland. His cavalcade of 
Danish and Italian noblemen were received 

271 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

with acclamation by the peasants of Asiago, 
cries of Viva il re dei Cimbri! resounded on 
all sides, and local hospitality put its very best 
foot forward. Bonato, the historian of the 
Sette Comuni, declares that Frederick entered 
into conversation with many of the people, 
but that he came to the conclusion that their 
dialect had no relation to Danish whatever; 
that, on the contrary, it was unquestionably 
High German; and probably derived from 
Teutonic races much nearer to them than 
Denmark. In order not to disturb the fes- 
tivities, adds Bonato, Frederick took care not 
to express his opinion during his visit. 

Whatever may have been the first cause, the 
fact is established that, until the seventeenth 
century, German-speaking colonies were scat- 
tered far and wide over this Alpine district. 
Then the Italian language gradually turned 
the tables upon its rival. 

The peculiarities of this dialect are by no 
means insurmountable. Many Italian roots 
are taken and German endings added, as, for 
example, pensare, to think, becomes pensarn, 
much in the same way as the Pennsylvania 
Germans say steamboaten, to travel by steam- 
boat. A very striking peculiarity is the con- 
stant change of v sounds into b. 

272 



The Sette Comuni 

" Wir sind " becomes " bir sain." 

An old man said to me at Asiago : " Do you 
know what we call ' Verona ' here? We call 
it ' Bern.' " 

Then I remembered that Theodoric the 
Great, because he sometimes resided at Ve- 
rona, was known in the German hero ro- 
mances as Dietrich von Bern. I also called to 
mind the name of Bern, the capital of Swit- 
zerland, which has long been a subject of 
contention among historians. The old chron- 
iclers used to say that the name was derived 
from the bear, which is the heraldic animal 
of the city, but now we know that the Dukes 
of Zaeringen, founders of Bern, had once pos- 
sessed the Margraviate of Verona, so that they 
must have named their new city in memory of 
the old. 

As a further example of this change of v 
sounds into b, let me quote the delightful in- 
scription painted beneath the big sun-dial on 
the wall of the great parish church of Asiago. 

The North German of this would be : " Ich 
Schweige, Wenn Das Licht Mir Fehlt, Und 
Selten Rede, Aber Wahr." 

In local dialect it reads: "Ich Schbaige, 
Benne De Lichte Vehlmar, Un Selten Rede, 
Aber Bahr." 

273 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

" I am silent when the light fails me, and 
seldom speak, but true." 

Underneath this inscription we have the 
following characteristic local names of the 
painters, marvellous mixtures of Italian and 
German : 

Redeghiero Christan Giokel 
un Costa Hans Pruk 

Michen 'Z Jhar 1890 

Practically all the words of the dialect, re- 
ferring to objects of general household use, are 
German, but sometimes Old German mean- 
ings have been retained. For example, when 
these mountaineers speak of Hose, they do 
not mean trousers, as the modern Germans 
do, but stockings, like our English hose. 
Sprechen, to speak, becomes prechten; Scha- 
fer, shepherd, Schafar. 

In a room which once formed part of the 
hall of the government, I found an old ward- 
robe, newly painted. At the top were these 
words in quaint characters: " Hia saint de 
Brife von Sieben Kamoun." " Here are the 
charters, or briefs, of the Seven Communi- 
ties." But the wardrobe was empty. All the 
parchments it had once contained were scat- 
tered or destroyed. The institutions which 

274 



The Sette Comuni 

gave the Sette Comuni a place in history, how- 
ever humble it may have been, have almost 
vanished. Only in certain regulations con- 
cerning the ownership and use of fields and 
forests can the traces of independence still be 
discerned. 

Historians have more than once remarked 
upon the sincere attachment which the Alpine 
races, subject to Venice, displayed toward the 
rule of that republic. The Doges of Venice 
generally wrote in their documents : I nostri 
fedelissimi e poverissimi Sette Comuni. It 
seems as though the rich republic of the sea 
and the sturdy little republic of the mountains 
must have understood each other most thor- 
oughly, nor presumed too much upon each 
other's good nature. As with Cadore, so with 
the Sette Comuni, tact and mutual respect 
were found to be successful where armed in- 
tervention might have proved disastrous; to 
this day, therefore, the lion of St. Mark still 
adorns many a public building in the Dolo- 
mites. Peasant women still go to the village 
fountain or the mountain stream, carrying 
copper buckets, slung from a wooden yoke, 
as do their city sisters in the little squares of 
Venice. 

Under Venetian rule the government of the 
275 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Sette Comuni consisted of local councils for 
the several communities, and a central council 
for the seven, called the Spettabile Reggenza, 
representing the sovereign power, and meet- 
ing annually at Asiago, where also resided a 
chancellor of the Reggenza. A proof of the 
surprising independence of the Sette Comuni 
is afforded by their so-called Nunzi, officials 
maintained by them in the principal cities of 
the Venetian Republic to watch over their 
interests, after the manner of modern consuls. 
They elected their own judges, and their only 
obligation was to defend their mountain passes 
against the foreign foes of Venice. The men 
could not be drafted for foreign military serv- 
ice. In fact, during the war of the Spanish 
Succession, when Venice, being hard pressed, 
attempted to force the Sette Comuni to send 
a small contingent, the Reggenza flatly re- 
fused. At the same time, many men enlisted 
as volunteers to help Venice in her struggle 
against the Turks, or even sent money and 
provisions at critical moments. 

But even if every word of the German dia- 
lect should be forgotten, every document lost, 
and the last inscription effaced, one could still 
feel sure that strong Teutonic influences had 
been at work in the Sette Comuni, by reason 

276 



The Sette Comuni 

of the system of common ownership of field 
and forest, which still maintains itself there. 
Here is a sign and symbol which no student 
can mistake. 

By far the greater part of the territory is 
property of the Sette Comuni as a whole, — a 
large zone, consisting of forests and pastures, 
stretching along the borders of the Tyrol. 
Here we have what is virtually an old-fash- 
ioned Teutonic Mark in which every house- 
holder has an equal right. It is administered 
by the Spettabile Consorzio dei Sette Comuni, 
composed of seven members, — a body which 
is the lineal descendant of the Reggenza of 
Venetian days. 

This Consorzio administers the common 
fields and forests, leases them to users, and 
distributes an annual dividend to each of the 
Seven Communities, according to a ratio of 
long standing. The dividend has amounted 
to about fifty thousand lire, and represents a 
very handsome revenue for the little villages. 



277 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE DOLOMITES 

THE Dolomites are the transcendentalists 
among the mountains — they are the peaks 
which have become ethereal through high 
thinking. Among the Alps they stand for 
refinement and good manners. Though they 
are for the most part immensely difficult to 
climb, precipitous and rigid, and hold them- 
selves aloof, yet, having once admitted you 
to their friendship, their attitude becomes one 
of kindliness and courtesy. If they have a 
lofty regard, and seem to keep the inquisitive 
at arm's length, it is because they choose to 
separate themselves from all that is glib and 
rampant. There is an exquisite reserve about 
them which is wholly theirs, a gentle pride, a 
quality of purity which serves to eliminate 
their material dross, and to transform them, 
century by century, into great abstractions 
pointing to the sky. 

The Dolomites owe much to their delicate 
278 



The Dolomites 

colouring. They are the pale faces among 
the peaks, and their pallor is largely a matter 
of contrast, for their limestone sides often rise 
abruptly from the darkest and most vivid for- 
ests imaginable, with no transition nor inter- 
mediate colours to prepare the eye; the gray 
close upon the green, the dazzling white 
against the black. Looking back upon our 
Dolomite days, this contrast always comes first 
to our recollection; the rich, sombre pines 
that seem to yield a little of their stiffness in 
the mellow light, and almost take on curves 
and flowing lines out of sheer luxuriance, and 
then the sudden uncompromising shafts that 
spring from them, serene, majestic, and im- 
memorial. 

Look for almost any colour in the Dolo- 
mites, and you will find it. The violet-grays 
and the red and yellow shades acquire a new 
tenderness there, an unlooked-for sentiment. 
Peace dwells in the quiet shadows. The 
mountains themselves seem to be covered with 
some soft substance as though nature had 
powdered them with the bloom of plums or 
peaches, for their magnesian-limestone rocks 
readily disintegrate under the influence of the 
atmosphere. 

The Dolomites are said to be the remains of 
279 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

coral reefs, now stranded high and dry. As 
far as a mere layman can judge of things in 
natural science, this theory, originally ad- 
vanced by Richthofen and amplified by Moj- 
sisovics, still satisfies the conditions of the 
geological problem, Richthofen based his 
theory upon the structure and composition of 
the Dolomites. Coral reefs are described as 
being built up by insect life, with a perpen- 
dicular side, like a wall, turned toward the 
tide, while the reefs are supported on the other 
side by sloping buttresses. In spite of ages of 
exposure and disintegration, almost all the 
Dolomites still show traces of this structure. 
Again, marine deposits are found in the rock 
of the Dolomites, occupying the same relative 
positions as in the coral reefs now in process 
of formation in other parts of the world. 

The imagination is at once caught by this 
coral reef theory. It explains much of what 
we see, and implies the rest. These stupen- 
dous formations, so unlike all others in the 
Alps, not as high perhaps as the highest, but 
often steeper, and generally less accessible, 
standing alone and self-sufficient, are thus 
seen to be silent symbols of the sea, the re- 
mains of activity carried on through aeons of 
time. 

280 



The Dolomites 

The name of Dolomites is popularly given 
to that whole group of mountains which lie 
in the southeastern corner of the Tyrol, 
bounded by the Pusterthal on the north, the 
Etschthal on the west, and extending east and 
south into Carinthia and Italy. To enclose 
the Dolomites, draw a line from Brixen to 
Lienz, thence to Belluno, Trent, and back to 
Brixen. This delineation is not strictly cor- 
rect, for black and red porphyry, sandstone, 
mica shist, and granite are found within this 
area, but the delineation is excusable, because 
the most remarkable peaks of this district are 
really composed of Dolomite. Here it is that 
we have among others the Rosengarten group, 
the mountains of Groden, the Marmolata, the 
Primiero peaks, those of Ampezzo and of 
Sexten, and the spurs that run down toward 
the great Italian plain. 

Tourists may be trusted to suit their own 
convenience in making a choice among these 
groups. Let it merely be mentioned here that 
a main road leads directly through from To- 
blach to Pieve di Cadore, and thus to Venice. 
Then Bruneck and Innichen, Waidbruck, 
Altzwang, Bozen, Neumarkt, Lavis, and even 
Trent, all stand at convenient openings into 
the Dolomites. On the Italian side there are 

281 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

various approaches over Bassano, Feltre, Bel- 
luno, etc. 

The Dolomites derive their name from a 
French scientist, Dolomieu, who travelled in 
the Southern Tyrol during 1789 or 1790, and 
first called attention to the peculiar magnesian 
limestone of which they are composed. He 
died in 1802. Thereafter, an occasional sa- 
vant, like Alexander von Humboldt, pene- 
trated to the region of Predazzo, known as a 
geologists' paradise, or an enthusiastic artist 
to Pieve di Cadore, the birthplace of Titian. 
But it was reserved for the English to lead the 
way for the modern tourist contingent. In 
1864 appeared " The Dolomite Mountains," 
by Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill, and in 1868 
Ball's " Guide to the Eastern Alps." These 
books stimulated investigation, and " Untrod- 
den Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys," by 
Amelia B. Edwards, issued in 1873, an d dedi- 
cated to American friends, described the 
charms of the district for a large public. 
Since then a little more has been written about 
the Dolomites in many tongues, from the 
standpoint of the geologist, the botanist, the 
climber, or the mere sightseer. 

In fact, a band of veritable Dolomite dev- 
otees has arisen. There are painters who 

282 



The Dolomites 

think no other district is quite as beautiful. 
There are natural scientists who make their 
careers by the study of its fissures and strata, 
and climbers who devote all their vacations 
to the precipices and pinnacles. The latter 
are essentially rock-climbers. They wear 
climbing shoes peculiar to themselves. They 
have a technical vocabulary of their own, in 
order that they may the better describe the 
characteristic features of their bold work. It 
is a pleasure to hear their enthusiastic descrip- 
tions of their conquests over natural obstacles, 
and to notice their appreciation of the beauties 
of the great pearl-gray forms that rise so 
grandly above the turmoil of the world be- 
neath. 



283 



CHAPTER XXX 

A STRING OF PEARLS: PRIMOLANO, PRIMIERO, 
PANEVEGGIO, PREDAZZO, AND PERRA 

One of the entrances into the Dolomites 
brings the visitor to a trail indicated by five 
names beginning with the letter P: Primo- 
lano, Primiero, Paneveggio, Predazzo, and 
Perra, a string of pearls leading into an Al- 
pine labyrinth. 

When I speak of Primolano as a pearl, I 
stretch the figure of speech somewhat, for 
Primolano is after all only an Italian hamlet. 
But taken as an abstraction, Primolano is still 
a pearl on our string, because in the retrospect 
it becomes a stopping-place on the way to a 
paradise of peaks. 

One fine day I descended from the verdant 
table-land of the Sette Comuni to Valsugana, 
in the canonlike Canale di Brenta. The path 
from Asiago passed Buso, and then continued 
down a veritable ravine called Frenzela to 
Valstagna. My Rucksack was heavier than 

284 



A String of Pearls 

usual with several big volumes of Abate Mo- 
desto Bonato's history of the Sette Comuni. 
The path crossed the torrent continually, ex- 
cept when the torrent crossed the path, which 
happened very often, because the water was 
unusually high. Indeed, there was little use 
in making a pretence of walking over the 
stones, and it was simpler to walk boldly 
through the water. 

At Valstagna there is an enormous gilded 
St. Mark's lion on a tower, a symbol of Vene- 
tian days; a bridge spans the Brenta to Car- 
pane, where the posta starts for Primolano. 

The Canale di Brenta is one of the most 
impressive of the southern approaches to the 
Alps. Imagine a Norwegian fiord and an 
American canon combined! Surely it has not 
its superior for wild beauty in the whole Dol- 
omite region. From Valstagna to Primolano 
it is particularly narrow and frowning, and 
is enclosed by perpendicular walls. The west- 
ern side is lined with tiny green patches on 
terraces that are little more than steps under 
cultivation. Nowhere is this terrace culture 
reduced to such straits, nowhere does it win 
ground under more difficult circumstances, 
or perform such wonders with so little stand- 
ing room, as in the Canale di Brenta. 

285 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The posta crossed a bridge over the Cis- 
mone, an affluent of the Brenta. Up in the 
heights the white church and a few houses of 
Enego, one of the Sette Comuni, gleam for a 
moment. Then the road is barred by the fort 
of Tombione, completely shutting in the val- 
ley and covering the road with an arch. A 
rocky grotto above the road, accessible only 
by ladder, was once the stronghold of Covolo. 
It has been known as a fortress since the sev- 
enth century, and was only abandoned as a 
stronghold by the Emperor Joseph II. in 

1783- 

From the pearl Primolano the way to the 
pearl Primiero passes through the astounding 
orrido or gorge of the Cismone. At this point 
the road is now cut out of the rocky walls, now 
supported over the wild torrent. The water 
below wears and tears, atom by atom, inch 
by inch, foot by foot, century by century. At 
Monte Croce the red, white, and green fron- 
tier post of Italy meets the yellow and black 
one of Austria, and presently there breaks into 
view a picture which calls forth expressions of 
happy enthusiasm, — Fiera di Primiero lies 
before us. 

The valley opens, green and wide; a white 
town lies within a ring of mountains; and a 

286 



A String of Pearls 

ruined castle, perched on a crag, fills the mid- 
dle distance with exquisite effects. We have 
crawled to the very feet of the Dolomites, 
whose great and singular charm suddenly 
parts our lips with admiration. Sass Maor 
(Sasso Maggiore), the Big Rock, Rosetta, the 
Palle di San Martino, Cimon della Pala, the 
highest of all, and the others, they stand be- 
fore us, each one with special distinction and 
character in form and colour. The Dolomites 
are the individualists among Alpine peaks, 
for they are not bound together and mar- 
shalled in ranges and chains like their brother 
peaks farther north. 

Fiera is the capital of the valley of Primi- 
ero. Its name acts as a reminiscence of the 
fairs which used to be held there in the hey- 
day of its mining prosperity. The iron, silver, 
and copper mines of the neighbourhood were 
known to exist as long ago as 1300, but they 
are now exhausted. In 1401 Duke Leopold 
of Austria granted the jurisdiction over Pri- 
miero to a Lord of Welsperg for the sum of 
four thousand florins in gold. The Castello 
della Pietra, it is said, still belongs to the fam- 
ily. The monster rock on which it is perched 
appears, from its geological formation, to 



287 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

have come down from the group of the Pale 
on the back of a glacier, as an erratic block. 

Miss Amelia B. Edwards, writing in 1873 
in her " Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented 
Valleys," says of this Castle of the Rock: "The 
solitary tooth of rock on which it stands has 
split from top to bottom within the last cen- 
tury, since when it is quite inaccessible. The 
present owner, when a young man, succeeded 
once, and only once, by the help of ropes, lad- 
ders, and workmen from Primiero, in climb- 
ing with some friends to the height of those 
deserted towers; but that was many a year 
ago, and since then the owls and bats have gar- 
risoned them undisturbed." 

The English explorers of the Dolomites 
early set foot in the glorious valley of Primi- 
ero. Witness the name of the mountain Cima 
di Ball among other evidence. Miss Ed- 
wards especially wrote one of her most 
charming chapters on this district. In the 
town itself she detected a double architectural 
character. " The town of Primiero," she 
wrote, " lies partly in the plain, and partly 
climbs the hill on which the church is built. 
The houses in the flat have a semi-Venetian 
character, like the houses of Ceneda and Lon- 
garone. The houses on the hill are of the 

288 



A String of Pearls 

quaintest German-Gothic and remind one of 
the steep-roofed, many-turreted mediaeval 
buildings in Albrecht Durer's backgrounds. 
This curious juxtaposition of dissimilar archi- 
tectural styles is accounted for by the fact that 
Primiero, in itself more purely Italian than 
either Caprile or Agordo, became transferred 
to Austria and partly colonized by German 
operatives about the latter end of the four- 
teenth century. The Tedeschi, drafted thither 
for the working of a famous silver mine, took 
root, acquired wealth, built the church, and 
left their impress on the place, just as the 
Romans left theirs in Gaul, and the Greeks 
in Sicily." 

These German operatives, mentioned by 
Miss Edwards, belong to the same class of 
imported German Knappen, called Canopi 
by the Italians, reference to whom was made 
in describing the valleys which branch out 
northward from the Valsugana. 

The way from Primiero to Paneveggio, the 
next pearl on our string, brings us to the nobly 
placed summer pastures of San Martino di 
Castrozza and to the Rolle Pass. 

In July the sun at San Martino di Cas- 
trozza rises over the Pala di San Martino, 
and thus slowly illumines the forests and pas- 

289 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

tures. At dawn there is an atmosphere of 
rare lights and tints. The giant Dolomites 
stand round about, sheer above the green- 
black pines, wrapped in an awe-inspiring lu- 
minosity. Farther south the uniform gray 
Vette di Feltre culminate in the Pavione. 

As we mount across the pastures, to cut the 
zigzags of the carriage road, the Cimon della 
Pala grows even greater, improving on ac- 
quaintance, as really great personages usually 
do. When we reach the top of the pass, it 
becomes the dominant peak. Under the foot 
gentians and Alpine roses bloom with an in- 
tensity of colour such as is rarely seen else- 
where in the Alps. The little star gentians 
make vivid spots of Prussian blue, where they 
gather in bunches on the green pasture. Else- 
where, beside the more widely heralded beau- 
ties of the gentians, the Alpine roses, and the 
edelweiss, the flora of the Alps is rich in the 
perfumed pink of the simple mountain carna- 
tions; white flags, soft as silk, often stand 
timidly by marshy springs or damp water 
courses, and flutter sweetly in the passing air; 
great yellow anemones, bold and brave on 
rocky uplands, turn to flimsy bunches of hair 
as seed-time draws near; exquisite asters 
match their pale lavender petals against the 

290 



A String of Pearls 

complementary saffron of their centres. There 
is the little button of cinnamon red that smells 
like vanilla; and the very grass, aromatic 
with thyme and sweet-smelling herbs, has a 
sheen and shimmer of its own on the smooth 
mountainsides. 

From the cantoniera, on the top of the 
Rolle Pass, the road dips down on the other 
side through a beautiful wood to Paneveggio, 
another of the places on this route whose name 
begins with a P. There is a hospice modern- 
ized into a hotel, as at San Martino di Cas- 
trozza, a cantoniera for the forestry officials, 
a chapel, a dairy, a sawmill, and much lum- 
ber. 

The forests around Paneveggio are famous. 
They belong to the Austrian Crown, and are 
said to yield an annual income of some one 
hundred thousand gulden. The tree-trunks 
are much prized as ship-masts, and are sent 
even as far as Venice. Certain rare plants 
grow here, among others the Knautia longi- 
foglia Koch and the Lonicera nigra and cce- 
rulea. 

Predazzo is the next pearl on my string. 
It is perhaps more useful and curious than 
beautiful, for it is given over to sawmills, 
foundries, and quarries, and the floor of the 

291 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

valley shows traces of frequent inundations 
where the green has been rubbed off. 

For all that, Predazzo is one of the show 
places of the world. According to the geolo- 
gists, it is built nearly in the centre of an ex- 
tinct crater. A volcano once burst open the 
ground hereabouts, and, after breaking the 
superimposed Dolomite crust, poured out a 
lot of volcanic rock, lava-like, on top. Some 
of these rocks were Syenite, Tourmaline gran- 
ite, and Uralite porphyry. Finally the vol- 
cano ceased to belch forth, and there suc- 
ceeded the era of those great movements 
which made the Alps what they are, upheav- 
ing here and depressing there, ■ until moun- 
tains and valleys were produced. The rains 
ran down the slopes, washed and cut away 
the sides of the crater, while the torrents of 
the Avisio and Travignolo wore their way 
through the mountains, scooped out the cen- 
tre, and laid bare a cross-section of many strata 
for us to see to-day. 

Predazzo is treasured by geologists and 
mineralogists as a sort of experimental sta- 
tion, where they can work out their new the- 
ories, or lose their preconceived notions. It 
is even called a Key to Geology. 

In 1811 a savant, G. B. Brocchi, first called 
292 



A String of Pearls 

attention to the remarkable condition of things 
geological at Predazzo in a volume entitled 
" Memoria Mineralogica della Valle di 
Fassa." In the strangers' book of the Hotel 
Nave d'Oro are the names of many illustrious 
natural scientists who have visited this region. 
On the 30th of September, 1822, Von Hum- 
boldt arrived there on his way to the Congress 
of Verona, executed a rapid survey, and left 
the same day for Egna. It is hard to pick 
among the names without doing an injustice 
to conscientious investigators, but those of 
Necker de Saussure, Richthofen, Gilbert and 
Churchill and Mojsisovics appear among the 
more familiar ones. 

A feature of historic and economic interest 
near Predazzo is the so-called Feudo, or 
Monte Feudale, on the slopes of the Latemar, 
a grassy hill which is used for pasture, and is 
owned in common by the male descendants 
of the original families of Predazzo. In the 
archives of the village of Forno there is a 
document which says that the Feudo was 
granted to the men of Predazzo by a Count 
Fuchs. But there has always been a tradition 
in Predazzo that the grant came originally 
from a woman. 



293 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Now, as Margaretha Maultasch held the 
valley in possession from 1347 to 1359, and 
had a Count Fuchs among her managers dur- 
ing that period, document and tradition can 
be reconciled. The truth would appear to be 
that Margaretha Maultasch executed the 
grant through the agency of a Count Fuchs. 

There is a government school of lace-mak- 
ing for the women, and, although Predazzo 
owns much cattle and saws much wood, never- 
theless, during the summer season most of 
the men emigrate to find work in foreign 
countries, generally as stone-masons. 

Of our last pearl, Perra, in the Fassa Val- 
ley, I hesitate to write at all — it is so small 
and trusting. The inn there is so startlingly 
picturesque, that some syndicate with a rov- 
ing commission might try to buy it for an 
exhibition. Imagine a house on the green, 
which has backed up against an enormous 
rock, like a hermit-crab into a shell. It is 
hard to make out what is rock and what is 
house. As though that were not enough in the 
way of picturesqueness, the entrance to the 
inn is an arch and the vestibule a vault. 
Massive steps of stone curve up to a hall, 
which is rough, but clean. There was trout 



294 



A String of Pearls 

for supper, straight from the torrent outside, 
and the next morning, the bill was the small- 
est I could remember ever having paid for 
a night's lodging. 



295 



CHAPTER XXXI 

CORTINA DI AMPEZZO 

The Magnificent Community of Ampezzo 
(Magnifica Comunita Ampezzo), this was 
the resounding title conferred upon Cortina 
and its surroundings by the Republic of 
Venice in 142 1. Although Cortina has been 
Austrian since 15 1 1, with only a short inter- 
mission from 1 8 10 to 1813, when it belonged 
to Napoleon's short-lived Kingdom of Italy, 
yet this title survives, and is still inscribed on 
the coat of arms of Cortina, the chief village. 
It is amply descriptive. The village is the 
nucleus of a real community, which owns pas- 
tures and forests in common, and derives so 
large a revenue from them that it has the 
reputation of being the richest community in 
the Tyrol. 

Cortina is doubly magnificent, by reason 
both of its wealth and also of its situation. 
The mention of its name recalls a white spot 
in a vast bowl of green. A campanile shows 

296 




CORTINA DI AMPEZZO 



Cortina Di Ampezzo 

from the white, and the warm smell of haying- 
time pervades the air. Cortina seems to be 
always making hay while the sun shines. It is 
a progressive place, some 4,025 feet above the 
level of the sea, with an alpine atmosphere 
tempered by the nearness of Italy. More- 
over, the mountains are a constant inspira- 
tion: toward the northeast the Cristallo group 
and the Pomagagnon; toward the southeast 
the Sorapis and the Antelao, and around from 
south to west, the Pelmo, Rocchetta, Becco 
di Mezzodi, Croda di Formin, Nuvolau, 
Cinque Torri, Crepa, and Tofana. The four 
principal outlets from the Cortina basin are 
made by the Ampezzo road north to Toblach, 
and south to Cadore, and by the Tre Croci 
Pass to the east, and the Tre Sassi Pass to the 
west. Through these openings the winds 
sweep freely across the green. 

Cortina has a main street which widens 
somewhat at the post-office and the church. 
The houses are large and white, mostly of 
stone and mortar, for Cortina was burned to 
the ground by the French in 1809, and the 
sunburnt, wooden cottages tend to disappear. 

The campanile of Cortina may be con- 
sidered to resemble the bell-tower of St. 
Mark's in Venice, but it is not quite as high, 

297 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

the top being only 256 feet above the 
street. 

The people of Cortina are essentially quiet 
and steady by temperament. 

The men have discarded whatever peculiar 
costume they may have worn, but the women 
retain theirs to a great extent. They wear 
little black felt hats, which are low in the 
crown, and have two long ribbons hanging 
down the back. 

Most of the peasant costumes in the Alps, 
as has been stated elsewhere, are probably 
obsolete fashions which once obtained in the 
cities. 

The people of Cortina are genuinely inter- 
ested in matters of art. Witness first of all 
the frescoes on the annex of the hotel Aquila 
Nera. The wall-spaces above the first floor 
are covered with . paintings by two members 
of the Ghedina family, Guiseppe and Luigi, 
who studied in Venice and Vienna. On the 
side facing the street and the hotel itself, we 
have allegorical groups. One represents the 
Arts: sculpture, painting, and architecture; 
and the other the Physical Sciences, symbol- 
ized by the telegraph, the camera, and the 
steam-engine. These groups are flanked by 
Mercury and Urania. On this side, also, are 

298 



Cortina Di Ampezzo 

medallion portraits of Rafael, Durer, and 
Titian. 

On another side of the annex, the artist 
has given us his impression of human life in 
four acts. The first shows us children sliding 
down-hill; in the second, a young man is 
talking to a young woman at a cottage door; 
the third displays a domestic interior, con- 
taining father, mother, and children; and the 
fourth reveals a solitary old man, sitting on a 
cottage bench. 

Although the principal wealth of the Mag- 
nificent Community of Ampezzo consists in 
horses and cattle and timber, the artistic sense 
of the people has been turned to financial 
advantage by industrial schools. 

The valley is too high for the vine, and even 
our American corn does not do well there, so 
that a resort to home industries becomes 
necessary. 

There is an industrial school, supported by 
the government, where metal and wood 
mosaic is made, as well as gold and silver 
filigree work, the latter resembling the 
jewelry of Genoa. By the help of these, and 
allied industries, carried on in the houses, 
most of the people of Cortina are able to 
make a living at home, and emigration to 

299 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

America is consequently rarer than on the 
Italian side of the frontier. 

But, after all, and year by year, it is be- 
coming more and more evident that Cortina 
has discovered her real source of income in 
her scenery, and has instituted a very practical 
use for the beauty of the mute Dolomites. 
The tourist trade already brings many thou- 
sand visitors every year. Cortina is one of the 
few places in the Tyrol where the English and 
Americans bear anything like a reasonable 
proportion to the Germans. In the past, the 
inhabitants may sometimes have asked them- 
selves how they might utilize all these threat- 
ening towers. Now peak and peasant have 
entered into partnership, hotel proprietors 
have been admitted to the compact, and a 
multitude of travellers from all points of the 
compass annually rejoice at the result. With 
grateful hearts they return to their homes to 
sing the praises of Cortina and the Magnifi- 
cent Community of Ampezzo. 



300 



CHAPTER XXXII 

FROM CORTINA TO PIEVE DI CADORE 

The drive to Cadore is over a road as hard 
as cement, and as white as snow. Though con- 
structed in the Alps, it is as smooth as the best 
park roads in the plains. 

At San Vito, the Austrian Stellwagen is 
exchanged for an Italian messageria, while 
we wait and watch the clouds drifting around 
Antelao, and feeling their way from pinnacle 
to pinnacle of that dominant peak. A girl 
with a red kerchief bound around her head 
is washing bright-coloured clothes in a white 
gully. The sun shines so brilliantly on the 
Dolomite rock, that no shadows seem able to 
find a resting-place there. The Boite torrent 
runs glass-green over the stones in the valley 
below. 

After San Vito, the Ampezzo road creeps 
from under the shadow of Sorapis, and 
comes wholly within the sphere of influence 
of the Antelao, which has been a constant 

301 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

menace to the valley for centuries. Once in 
awhile some fissure on high has widened with 
the frost, or some tower has toppled over, 
and a mass of crumbled magnesian limestone 
has started down the slope in a white flood to 
desolate and overwhelm what was below. 
Such a stream of stone is called in Italian a 
boa, and corresponds to the German Muhr. 

Antelao looks kingly in its solitary gran- 
deur, a snow-patch for a crown, and a row of 
precipices down the front for the folds of 
royal robes. It is said that once in awhile it 
may be seen even from Venice, looking trans- 
lucent and opaline on the horizon. 

The impression which Pieve di Cadore 
makes, when approached from the north, is 
that of an outpost of the Alps toward the 
plains. If you walk through the village, and 
emerge on the southern side, you look ofT, and 
another world lies below, the warm, Italian 
world of changing colours. Every step you 
take in that direction takes you away from the 
mountains of Alpine serenity. 

Titian (1477 -1 576) 

The village of Pieve di Cadore centres 
around Titian even to-day. The largest 

302 



From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore 

houses gather around the Piazza Tiziano, 
there is a Cafe Tiziano, a Tipographia Tiz- 
iano. His family name of Vecellio is fre- 
quently borne by the Sindaco (the mayor), 
by the butcher, the baker, the grocer, and the 
shoemaker. 

The statue of Titian represents him with 
palette and brush in hand. He presents a 
dignified, long-bearded figure, clad in tunic 
and trunks, with a graceful mantle hanging 
from his shoulders. The statue was erected 
in 1880. Antonio dal Zotto, a fellow country- 
man of Titian, modelled it; the brothers De 
Poli, the famous bell-makers of Ceneda, cast 
it in bronze, and Giuseppe Ghedina of Cor- 
tina designed the stone pedestal. 

The house where Titian was born is in a 
corner just off the main Piazza. There seems 
to be no reason to question the authenticity 
of this house. Titian's family were not ob- 
scure people, but important inhabitants of 
Pieve, and the painter himself had become 
famous long before he died. A mistake could 
not well have arisen. The house itself is 
small, whitewashed, and flat-roofed, showing 
its great age. Some of the windows retain 
tiny round panes set in lead, but otherwise 
there is nothing remarkable about this house. 

303 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

The room is shown where he was born, and 
another where he painted, when he was at 
home. 

Still, the view from the window of Titian's 
studio is valuable. Rev. Henry Van Dyke, 
after his visit, wrote of this outlook in his 
" Little Rivers : " " Now, for the first time, 
I could understand and appreciate the land- 
scape backgrounds of his pictures. The com- 
pact masses of mountains, the bold, sharp 
forms, the hanging rocks of cold gray emerg- 
ing from green slopes, the intense blue aerial 
distances — these all had seemed to be unreal 
and imaginary — compositions of the studio. 
But now I knew that, whether Titian painted 
out-of-doors, like our modern impressionists, 
or not, he certainly painted what he had seen, 
and painted it as it is." 

In this same little side square stands the 
Palazzo Sampiere, which belonged to Titian's 
grandfather. 

A Museum contains Titian's patent of no- 
bility with his armorial bearings, for he was 
created count by the German emperor, 
Charles V. 

The story of Titian's life may be gathered 
from any encyclopaedia. The bare facts 
which concern us are that he was born in 

304 



From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore 

Pieve in 1477; left home in i486 to study 
with Zuccati and Bellini in Venice, but re- 
turned almost every summer to Cadore. He 
died in Venice in 1576, aged ninety-nine. 

The Republic of Cadore 

The mountaineers of Cadore enjoyed prac- 
tical self-government for eight centuries, from 
about 1000 to 1807, when Napoleon repealed 
their statutes. They were first connected with 
Aquileia, then with Venice, but during that 
whole period they never surrendered their 
local rights. 

There is no doubt that Venice made friends 
easily. As with the mountaineers of the Sette 
Comuni, so with those of Cadore, she under- 
stood how to win their confidence, and to 
keep their good-will. She met them half- 
way, and showed them respect. 

The truth is that there were strong mutual 
interests. The mountaineers stood on the 
northern border, and were a bulwark against 
the German Imperialists. Their forests were 
full of masts for ships, and piles upon which 
to build the houses of Venice. Indeed, the 
palaces of Venice were set on the tops of 
Cadore trees. Mr. Robertson, in his valuable 

3°5 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

work, " Through the Dolomites," has well 
said: "The heart of Venice is of Dolomite 
pine. Kings from the mountain forests thus 
sustain the throne of the Queen of the Adri- 
atic." In those days, too, there were many 
mines of precious and useful metals in the 
mountains. 

On the other hand, Venice offered Cadore 
an outlet for all this raw material, a market 
that was in touch with the ends of the then 
known world. She supplied Cadore with 
grain, and her alliance practically placed 
armies and navies in the service of the little 
republic. 

The reciprocal evidences of friendship 
were many and substantial throughout the 
centuries, but greatest of all was this: that 
the stronger republic never stretched forth 
her arm to conquer the weaker, never treated 
the mountaineers as subjects, but preferred 
to enlist their help as friends. Therein lay the 
permanency of the bond between Venice and 
Cadore, and in the disregard of this, where 
distant lands were concerned, lay the cause of 
the ultimate decline of Venice. C. Lom- 
broso has expressed this thought as follows: 

" The greatness of the Venetian States 
must be attributed primarily to the liberty 

306 



From Cortina to Pieve Di Cadore 

they enjoyed, and the decline of their liberty 
was brought about chiefly by conquests in 
distant lands — conquests entailing tremen- 
dous expenses, hateful taxes, enormous arma- 
ments, and the surrender of the supreme 
power into the hands of men who ended in 
tyrannizing over them, and in completely 
suppressing their liberty." 



307 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

TO CORVARA 

THE Falzarego road climbs westward be- 
tween Tofana and Nuvolau to the Pass of 
Tra i Sassi. This last name exactly suits the 
scenery of the pass. The road winds literally 
" Among the Rocks," through a tract of 
debris, of mountain waste, thrown off from 
the Lagazuoi and the Sasso di Stria on either 
hand. Now and again the tinkle of goat-bells 
from the crags above give a sense of relief, 
but for the most part there is the oppression of 
desolation, the melancholy of ruin and decay. 
Here were vast masses going to pieces, Ti- 
tanic crumblings loosened from above, and 
heaped in grand confusion around the moun- 
tain bases. 

The all-pervading and all-providing Ger- 
man-Austrian Alpine Club has marked the 
path over the Castello Pass (Valparola Joch), 
down grassy slopes and through woods to St. 
Cassian. 

308 



To Corvara 

The neighbourhood of St. Cassian is rich 
in fossils and petrifactions, to delight the 
heart of a natural scientist. The Enneberg 
valley is, in fact, almost as interesting to 
mineralogists and geologists as that of Fassa. 

Corvara, farther along, has an hotel full 
of sketches by a native artist, Franz Rotta- 
nara. The paintings are on the stair walls 
and in the rooms. I liked best certain outline 
sketches of local types, portraits of old people, 
or of members of the Rottanara family. 

Although the names hereabouts sound 
Italian, German is the language most in 
use. If we turn southward, however, down 
the Enneberg valley, we shall come upon 
traces of Ladin, a survival of the Roman 
occupation. 

It may be stated in a general way that, at 
the time of the invasion of Teutonic races, the 
whole of the Eastern Alps had already become 
Romanized. The conquest of German over 
Latin from that time forward was by no means 
rapid. We know that Romance dialects 
maintained themselves even in some regions 
of Northern Tyrol until the fourteenth cen- 
tury. To-day, the Ladin dialects of the Can- 
ton of Graubiinden in Switzerland, and of 
Groden, Enneberg, and Livinalongo, each 

309 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

distinct from the others, are the only rem- 
nants of a once widely spread language. 

These dialects are not merely corrupt 
Italian; they are separate branches of the 
original Latin stock. In these days of rapid 
communication, they are making way for 
German on the one hand, or Italian on the 
other. Their isolation being broken, they 
must accommodate themselves to their sur- 
roundings. 

Turning northward from Corvara the road 
leads by Colfosco over the Grodenjoch to the 
Grodenthal. 

On the walls of the inn at Colfosco an 
artist has painted the legends of the valley 
with rapid but firm strokes, and told the story 
underneath in native Ladin. 

To Toblach 

Northward from Cortina the Ampezzo 
road soon becomes involved in forests of pro- 
found and solemn beauty, above which the 
ethereal peaks and bulwarks of the Dolo- 
mites reach into the sky. The road only grows 
whiter by contrast with the trees, while the 
torrent of the Boite seems greener and glass- 
ier, as it sings to itself over its limestone bed. 

310 



To Corvara 

Now and again a boa of broken stone comes 
down to the path, on either hand. Now and 
then a view opens to the side, and there, at 
the end, some silent, exalted tower stands, 
some peak called a finger or a horn, some 
group like a cathedral, some cyclopean wall, 
with cornices where small glaciers or snow- 
slopes have lodged. In fact, shapes that you 
may construe as you like, and schemes of 
colour from which you may pick your favour- 
ite shades, have backed up against the sky 
and are at bay to right and left. 

As it advances, the road becomes gradu- 
ally Teutonic. Botestagna becomes Peutel- 
stein. The rock of that name was once 
crowned by a castle, which was held succes- 
sively by the Republic of Cadore, by Venice, 
by the German Imperialists, and the Austri- 
ans. It fell into disuse during the reign of 
the Emperor Joseph II., and was destroyed 
in 1867. At present only the foundations and 
parts of the walls are standing. 

Ospitale was once a pilgrim shelter, an 
hospice, as its name indicates. 

At Schluderbach the invisible line of lan- 
guage has been crossed. We are in Deutsch- 
Tyrol again, in the land of entirely neat and 
appetizing inns, of landlords, who once and 

3 J i 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

again speak their " wiinsch wohl zu speisen!" 
as the soup comes on the table. Welschland, 
with its undoubted but different charms, is 
behind us. Here are coziness and freshness, 
the smell of new paint, and the appearance 
of good repair. 

Schluderbach is also the centre of much 
climbing for high tourists, and of many pretty 
walks for mountain amateurs. 

The Ampezzo road continues northward 
along the Diirrensee, this lake reflecting the 
Monte Cristallo group on its quiet surface. 
There is not always enough water to make the 
picture perfect, especially in the late summer 
and autumn, when the tourist travel is heavi- 
est, but it is a consolation to know that the 
spring never fails to fill up the lake. 

At Hohlenstein (Italian Landro), the val- 
ley of the Schwarze Rienz opens to the right, 
admitting a view of the Drei Zinnen. 

In all the range of the Alps it would be 
hard to find a gap which reveals so much, so 
suddenly. We look through a dark frame 
of pines upon a bare world of rock. Thus 
seen, the Drei Zinnen look unapproachable 
and intangible. They seem to display more 
than the usual exclusiveness of the Dolomites, 
and long after the sun has left Landro, and 

312 



To Corvara 

the valley is dark, the Drei Zinnen continue 
to glow and to retreat into a world of their 
own, where they reflect the glory of some- 
thing we cannot see. 

And so through uninhabited stretches of 
dark forests, springing from a white soil, the 
great Ampezzo road passes by the lake of 
Toblach, and finds an outlet in the green 
Pusterthal. Cadore at one end, Toblach at 
the other, and Cortina in the middle! The 
road winds its long arms from the Latin to the 
Teuton. It proclaims their brotherhood, and 
pleads for the unity of the human race. 

hake Misurina — Tre Croci Pass 

Lake Misurina is not large, but it reflects 
the Drei Zinnen somewhat as the Diirrensee 
does the Cristallo group. It is shallow, and 
well stocked with trout, but those who ought 
to know, say that the fish are very wary. 

The road passes an alp with a large herd 
of cattle, and presently plunges once more 
into the solemn pines. The walk from Lake 
Misurina to the Tre Croci Pass is like a 
promenade in a park. Every foot of ground 
seems cared for, every tree nursed to maturity. 

The Tre Croci Pass is a depression be- 
3*3 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

tween Sorapis and Cristallo, and derives its 
name from three wooden crosses. A cool 
breeze generally draws through the depres- 
sion in summer, and sighs in the surrounding 
larch woods. Across the resplendent plain, in 
which Cortina lies unseen, wayward shreds 
of cloud crawl close to the precipices of 
Tofana. A piece of snow-crowned Marmo- 
lata shows between the Torre di Averau and 
Nuvolau. The Cristallo peaks on the right 
stand out clear and clean-cut against the sky. 

The Valley of Silver and Gold 

The Valbona may very properly be called 
the Valley of Silver and Gold on account of 
the names Argentiera (Latin argentum, sil- 
ver), and Auronzo (Latin aurum, gold), 
which occur there. 

As though to emphasize the metallic char- 
acter of this valley, the big road down into 
Valbona is called the Erzstrasse, or the 
Mineral Road, because it was constructed to 
serve the mines. 

As the Ampezzo valley offers many objects 
for our admiration, so the Valbona possesses 
only a few intensely beautiful objects to hold 
our attention. Chief among these are the 

3H 



To Corvara 

astounding peaks, the truly terrific towers that 
loom up in a circle above the forests. The 
forest of San Marco is a touch of Venice in 
the wilderness. This is a forest of larch-trees 
which the Republic of Cadore presented to 
its ally the Republic of Venice in 1463. Ever 
since then the San Marco trees have supplied 
timber for ship-building at Venice. Beyond 
the forest of San Marco the Mineral Road 
comes out upon Miniera Argentiera, where 
mining shafts have laid bare the mountainside 
and made the torrent of the Ansiei run brown 
with the washing of the ore. There are great 
mounds, slopes and terraces of reddish earth. 
The miners swarm into the shafts and the 
wooden sheds. The whole is a monster ant- 
hill in the forest. Although the name Argen- 
tiera is still retained, lead and zinc only are 
now extracted, but the remarkable vitality of 
this mine may be appreciated, when we re- 
member that it was already famous in the 
tenth century, and has been worked at inter- 
vals ever since. 

The range of the Marmarole on the right 
hand becomes more and more dominant as 
we progress, and presently we reach the strag- 
gling series of villages known collectively as 



3i5 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

Auronzo, " the golden town," and the most 
populous aggregation in Cadore. 

The surrounding mountains are on a vast 
scale, high and rugged, but they show them- 
selves to best advantage when you draw away 
from Auronzo itself. 

Villa Grande, one of the villages of the 
series, seems really less of a place than Villa 
Piccola. 

There is no doubt that the wooden houses, 
which have survived the fires of late years, 
are interesting to a degree. They represent a 
bold type of wood and stone architecture 
which is exceedingly effective. The wood of 
the superstructure is burned a rich chocolate 
brown, almost black, by the sun, and this 
forms a striking contrast to the white mortar 
of the substructure. The truth is the old 
Cadore houses show the influence both of 
Romance and Teutonic conditions. They 
stand in the borderland. They partake of 
mountain and plain, of forest and quarry. 
Wooden balconies and wooden shingles sur- 
mount vaulted Romanesque doorways, and 
in the interior you will often find behind the 
hearth a space furnished with seats. 

The costume of the women is sober. They 
wear dark dresses, and the invariable fazzo- 

316 



To Corvara 

letto, or kerchief, is of dark brown, the ends 
being left to flap at the side or back of the 
head. Instead of heavy mountain shoes, they 
wear felt slippers. 

Over the Monte Croce Pass 

From Auronzo there is a drive by Gogna 
to Tre Ponte. Here is to be seen a most curi- 
ous as well as graceful piece of construction. 
Imagine three roads meeting in a triple 
bridge, the arches resting on a central pier, 
and the whole forming three obtuse angles 
over the torrents of Ansiei, Piave, and over a 
dry gorge. This position has always had 
strong strategic capabilities, and there was 
successful righting here by the natives against 
Maximilian's invaders in 1508-09, and 
against the Austrians in 1866. 

The Piave valley to Pieve di Cadore is 
rich in lights and shades, and full of a ma- 
jestic, classic quality, but a wonderful road 
turns the corner and goes up-stream to San 
Stefano through a gorge which deserves to 
rank with the Canale di Brenta among the 
wonders of the Dolomites. To fitly describe 
this gorge one would need to piece together 
the strongest adjectives that denote profun- 

3*7 



The Fair Land Tyrol 

dity and seclusion, the mountains rise so sheer 
and gray, on either hand; and the opening 
worn by the Piave is so narrow, and looks so 
impenetrable. Yet the Italians have built a 
road there, that winds along for six miles, now 
crawling close to the cliffs, and now piercing 
them with tunnels, until open ground is 
reached shortly before San Stefano. 

Looking up from San Stefano one can see 
afar off and high up a row of houses long- 
drawn across a slope of more than usual bril- 
liancy. When the afternoon sun throws a 
glow over the picture, the houses at this dis- 
tance look stately and very white, and the 
place well deserves its name of Candide. 
From Candide San Nicolo and San Stefano 
are seen in the plain. The sombre Dolomites 
are contrasted with the vivid green slopes. 
The peasants mount homeward-bound from 
their work, and nature is soothed and re- 
freshed by the setting sun. 

The Monte Croce Pass is an easy affair, 
though rather long and tedious. 

The way to Innichen lies through the 
Sexten valley and Moos. The Fischelein- 
thal opens on the left, barred by forts, and the 
jagged Drei Schuster Spitzen throne above. 

Then presently the Pusterthal looms into 

318 



To Corvara 

view and Innichen is discovered reposing 
quietly on the edge of its green fields. The 
railroad-track reminds us that we are once 
more in touch with the world of the lowlands, 
and that the repose of the Alps must now be- 
come for us a treasured memory. 

It will be a happy consummation if we can 
feel that the Crown Land Tyrol has benefited 
in some measure by our visit, even if but a 
little; that our admiration and appreciation 
of beauty and goodness, and our gratitude for 
services rendered may have lightened the 
burden of some peasant climbing into the 
heights, strengthened some stooping back in 
the fields or on the slopes, rendered the house- 
hold work of the women happier in the lonely 
huts, the play of the children freer, and the 
song of the people truer, better, and sweeter. 

Thus may mountain, stream, and valley 
receive a benison; the lakes and waterfalls 
rejoice greatly, and the very glaciers bristle 
less threateningly by reason of the melting in- 
fluence of kindliness and good cheer. 

THE END. 



3 r 9 



INDEX 



Abel, Bernhard and Arnold, 

20. 
Absam, 57. 
Achensee, 66, 76-79. 
Adamello, The, 175, 257. 
Adelbert, Count of Tyrol, 

191. 
Adige River (Etsch), 168, 

249. 
Adige Valley, 248, 249, 251, 

252. 
Adriatic, 222, 250. 
Aguntum, 97, 98. 
Ala, 249. 

Albrecht III., Duke of Aus- 
tria, 150. 
Alle Sarche, 253. 
Aim, xii., xiii., 68-75. 
Alpine Club, German and 

Austrian, 13, 170, 223, 229, 

231, 232, 308. 
Alpine climbing, 223-226. 
Alps, vii., 5, 8, 53-55. 
Ambras Castle, 36-38, 40. 
Ampezzo Valley, 107. 
Ampezzo Road, 281, 297, 301. 
Andechs, Counts of, 11, 36, 

310-313. 
Anne of Brittany, 25. 
Ansiei River, 315, 317. 
Antelao, The, 297, 301-302. 
Aquila Nera (Cortina), 298. 
Aquileia, 97, 305. 
Architecture, domestic, xiv.- 

xv., 316. 
Arco, 251, 253, 254. 



Argentiera, 315. 
Arlberg, The, 45, 51- 
Arthur of England, statue, 

16-17. 
Arvay, R. V., 170. 
Asiago, 269, 270, 271, 273, 

276. 
Aspern, Battle of, 203. 
Assa, Val d', 265, 266. 
Auersperg, Prince, 88. 
Augsburg, 40, 242. 
Augusta Vindelicorum 

(Augsburg), 97. 
Austria, 5, 45, 51, 52, 99, 184, 

191, 201, 203, 204, 206, 207, 

208, 214, 239, 243, 257, 263, 

265, 286, 296. 
Auronzo, 316, 317. 
Ausuganea, 256. 
Avisio River, 292. 

Ball, 282; Cima di, 288. 
Barlow, Henry Clark, 248. 
Bsssano, 265, 282. 
Bavarians, 7, 201, 202, 208. 
Beck, Leonhard, 30-31. 
Becco di Mezzodi, The, 297. 
Belluno, 265, 282. 
Beru, 3, 273. 
Bezau, 47, 48, 49. 
Bianca, Maria Sforza, 10, 18, 

26. 
Biener, Chancellor Wilhelm, 

66. 
Big Rock, The, 287. 
Bisson, General, 214. 



321 



Index 



Black Sea, 222. 

Blumau, 169. 

Boeheim, Wendelin, 39. 

Boite River, 301, 310. 

Bona, Val, 314-317. 

Bonato, 272, 285. 

Borgo, 256, 262. 

Bormio (Worms), 233-235. 

Botestagna (Peutelstein),3ii. 

Bozen, 157-166. 

Bregenz, 46. 

Bregenzerwald, 47. 

Brenner Route, 5, 33, 89-93, 

98, 143, 159, 187, 264-265. 
Brenta River, 250, 284-285. 
Bretterwand, The, in. 
Brixen, Bishops of, 190. 
Brixlegg, 65, 66. 
Brocchi, G. B., 292, 293. 
Broussier, General, 104-105. 
Bruneck, 100-103. 
Buco di Vela, 253. 
Buon Consiglio, Castello del 

(Trent), 239. 
Burgkmair, Hans, 30. 
Buxton, H. E., 227, 232. 

Cadore, 275, 301-307, 315- 

Caldonazzo, Lake, 250, 260. 

Calliano, Battle of, 240. 

Candide, 318. 

Canopi (Knappen), 258-259, 
289. 

Carinthia, 97, 109. 

Carson, F. H., 170. 

Cassian, St., 308-309. 

Castelbarco, Guglielmo, 248 ; 
Counts of, 251. 

Castelbell (Castle), 218. 

Castello Pass (Valparola 
Joch), 308. 

Caxton, William, 180. 

Celtic, 141. 

Charlemagne, 218. 

Charles, Archduke of Aus- 
tria, 198, 203. 

Charles the Bold, of Bur- 
gundy, 18, 22, 28. 



Charles VIII. of France, 25, 
26, 27. 

Charles V., Emperor of Ger- 
many, 244, 304. 

Christina, St., 141. 

Churburg Castle, 220. 

Cimbro Dialect, 265-266, 269, 
271-274. 

Cimon della Pala, The, 287, 
290. 

Cinque Torri, The, 297. 

Cismone River, 286. 

Civezzano, 257. 

Coburg, Duke of, 77. 

Colfosco, 310. 

Colin, Alexandre, 20. 

Conrad II., Emperor of Ger- 
many, 256. 

Cortina di Ampezzo, 29, 296- 
300, 310, 314. 

Cor vara, 308-310. 

Costume, vi., vii., 5, 6, 84- 
85, no, 165, 191-196, 298, 
316-317. 

Council of Trent, The, 243- 
246. 

Counter Reformation, 245. 

Coursen, Charlotte H., 147- 
149. 

Crepa, The, 297. 

Cristallo group, 297, 312, 
313, 314; Monte, 107, 171. 

Croda di Formin, The, 297. 

Dante in the Trentino, 247- 
255; statue, 240, 247. 

Danube, 45, 56. 

Defregger, 12-13, 1 13-127. 

Delagothurm, 170. 

Democracy, 48. 

Dodici range, 261, 265. 

Dolomieu, 282. 

Dolomites, 107, 109, 140, 142, 
143, 170, 264, 265, 278-283, 
287, 290, 296, 310. 

Dorcher, 220. 

Dornauberg-Klamm, 86. 

Doss Trento, 242. 



322 



Index 



Drama, popular, Brixlegg, 66; 

Meran, 188-189, 197. 
Drau River, 106. 
Dreischusterspitze, 109, 235. 
Dreisprachenspitze, 109, 235. 
Drei Zinnen, 312-313. 
Dro, 254. 

Diirer, Albrecht, 22, 30-31. 
Durrensee, 171, 312, 313. 

Eben, 78. 

Edwards, Amelia B., 134, 282, 

288. 
Eggenthal, 169. 
Eisack River, 158. 
Eisack Valley, 129. 
Eleonora of Scotland, 187- 

188. 
Engadine, 51. 
Enneberg Valley, 309. 
Eppan Castle, 174. 
Etruscan, 141, 191. 
Etsch, League on the, 152. 
Etsch River (Adige), 158, 

218. 
Etsch Valley, 158, 222. 

Fallmerayer, 129-133. 

Falzarego Road, 308. 

Fassa, Val, 171, 292, 294. 

Feldkirch, 51. 

Feltre, 282. 

Ferdinand of Aragon, 19, 25, 

27. 
Ferdinand, Archduke, 40. 
Ferdinand Karl, Archduke, 

40, 58. 
Ferdinandeum Museum 

(Innsbruck), 5, 11, 39. 
Fersina River, 257. 
Fiera di Primiero, 286, 287. 
Fierozzo, Val (dei Mocheni), 

259, 260. 
Finstermiinz, 52, 159. 
Fischburg Castle, 142. 
Fischeleinboden, 109. 
Fischeleinthal, 318. 
Floitenthal, 88. 



Fohn, 89-90. 

Fornace, 259. 

Francis I., Emperor of Aus- 
tria, 64. 

Francis I., Emperor of Ger- 
many, 6. 

Francis Joseph, Emperor of 
Austria, 34. 

Frankfort National Assem- 
bly, 132-133- 

Franks, 256. 

Franzensfeste, 98. 

Frau Hitt, 5. 

Frederick IV., King of Den- 
mark and Norway, 271. 

Frederick II., Emperor of 
Germany, 146. 

Frederick III., Emperor of 
Germany, 19, 24. 

Frederick " With the Empty 
Pockets," 9, 11, 19, 183, 187. 

French, 7, 99-100, 104, 105, 
202, 206, 208, 210-216, 257, 
297. 

Frescoes of Runkelstein Cas- 
tle, 178-185. 

Fiigen, 81. 

Gaisstein, 71. 

Game, xi. 

Garda, Lake, 251-252, 253, 

254. 
Geislerspitzen, 140. 
Georgenberg, St., 65. 
Gerlos, 85. 

German Empire, 190, 218. 
German language, 309, 310, 

311-312. 
Germany, 5, 52. 
Ghedina, Giuseppe, 303. 
Gilbert and Churchill, 282. 
Gilm, Hermann von, 7, 102- 

104. 
Ginzling, 86-88. 
Glurns, 221. 
Gnadenwald, 61. 
Godl, Stephan, 20. 
Gogna, 317. 



zn 



Index 



Golden Roof (Innsbruck), 9- 

10. 
Gomagoi, 228, 232-233. 
Gossensass, 90. 
Goths, 256. 
Gottfried von Strassburg, 

147, 178. 
Greifenstein Castle, 174. 
Gries, 172. 

Groden Valley, 134-142, 144. 
Grohmann, Baillie, 66. 
Gross G 1 o c k n e r , 70, no, 

230. 
Gross Venediger, 70, no. 
Gsieserthal, 105. 
Guntschnaberg, 167. 

Habsburg, 18, 21, 29, 46, 47, 

151, 152, 191. 
Hafelekar, 5. 
Hall, 55- 
Haspinger, Joachim, 105-106, 

198, 204, 209. 
Henry VIII. of England, 27- 

28. 
Herzog Friedrichstrasse 

(Innsbruck), 8. 
Hilliers, Baron d', 211, 212. 
Hitt, Miss, 227. 
Hofburg (Innsbruck), n, 37. 
Hofer, Andreas, tomb, 15; 

statue, 33-34, 197-216. 
Hofkirche (Innsbruck), 4-5, 

15-20; tablets, 22-29; Sil- 
ver Chapel, 44. 
Hohenschwangau Castle, 152. 
Hohe Salve, 70. 
Hohlenstein (Landro), 312. 
Hollauer, 33. 
Huard, 213. 
Humboldt, Alexander von, 

282, 293. 
Hungary, 25, 28. 

Imst, 52. 

Inn River, 3, 5, 52, 53, 56. 
Inn Valley, 4, 33, 53-55, 70, 
79, 222, 



Innichen, 97, 98, 108-109, 318, 

319. 
Inns, ix., x. 
Innsbruck, 3-14, 201, 202, 203, 

204, 205, 206. 
Interlaken, 3. 
Isel, Berg, 4, 13-14, 33-34, 

202-203, 206. 
Iselthal, in. 

Italian language, 243, 260, 310. 
Italians, 257. 
Italy, 233, 263, 264, 301. 

James I. of Scotland, 187. 
Jaufen Pass, 200, 201, 209, 

211. 
Jenbach, 65. 
Jenesien, 164, 173. 
Johann, St., in Tyrol, 74. 
John, Archduke of Austria, 

198, 203, 208, 209. 
Joubert, General, 99. 
Juval Castle, 218. 

Kaisergebirge, 4, 70. 
Kardaun, 169. 
Karersee, 171. 
Karneid Castle, 174. 
Kaufmann, Angelika, 48-50. 
Kitzbiihel, 68, 70. 
Kitzbuhelhorn, 68, 71. 
Klausen, 144. 
Klotz, 60. 

Konigspitze, The, 228, 232. 
Kreuzberg Pass, 109. 
Kropfsberg Castle, 66. 
Kuchelberg, The, 189; Battle 

of, 210. 
Kufstein, 4, 66-67, 202 - 

Laas, 219. 
Laaserthal, 219. 
Ladin, 141, 309-310. 
Lagarina, Val, 248. 
Lagazuoi, The, 308. 
Landeck, 50. 

Landesfiirstliche Burg (Me- 
ran), 187. 



3H 



Index 



Landhaus (Innsbruck), 7. 

Landro (Hohlenstein), 312. 

Landtag, 7, 45. 

Langenthal, 142. 

Langkofel, 135, 140, 142. 

Latemar, The, 174, 293. 

Latin, 141, 175, 229, 309. 

Latsch, 218. 

Lebenbacher, Friedrich, 185. 

Lefebre, Marshal, 202, 203, 
204, 205. 

Lendenstreich, Hans, 19. 

Lengmoos, 173. 

Leonhard, St., 211. 

Leopold, Archduke, 6. 

Leopold III., Duke of Aus- 
tria, 19. 

Levico, 261, 266. 

Levico, Lake, 250. 

Leuthold von Saben, 144. 

Lichtenberg Castle, 221. 

Lichtwer Castle, 66. 

Liechtenstein, 45, 50-51. 

Lienz, vii., 109-110. 

Lizzana Castle, 248-249, 251. 

Lombardy, 230. 

Lombroso, 306-307. 

Longobards, 256. 

Loppio Pass, 251, 253, 254. 

Lorenz, Dr. H., 170. 

Louis XI. of France, 22, 25, 
26. 

Luzern, 3. 

Maierhofen, 80, 86. 

Malory, Sir Thomas, 178, 180. 

Mais, 221. 

Malserheide, 221. 

Mantua, 214, 215. 

Margaret of Austria, 18, 26, 

27. 
Maria Maggiore, Santa 

(Trent), 239, 245. 
Maria Theresa, 6, 11. 
Maria Theresienstrasse, 4, 6, 7. 
Marmarole range, 315. 
Marmolate, The, 314. 
Martellthal, 218. 



Martin, St., 200, 215. 
Martino, San, di Castrozzo, 

289, 291. 
Martinswand, 32. 
Mary of Burgundy, 19, 22-24. 
Matzen Castle, 66. 
Maulbertsch, 11. 
Maultasch, Margaretha, 184, 

294. 
Maurice of Saxony, 244. 
Max, King of Bavaria, 62, 

6 4-. 
Maximilian I., Emperor of 

Germany, 9-10; tomb, 15- 

20; life, 21-31. 
Melegg, Battle of, 62. 
Menador di Levico, 265. 
Mendel Pass, 174. 
Meran, vi., 186-196, 210, 211, 

217. 
Milan, 257. 
Misurina, Lake, 313. 
Mittelgebirge, 4, 61. 
Mittersill, 69. 
Mittewald, 205. 
Mocheni, Val dei (Fierozzo), 

259-260. 
Mojsisovics, Edmund von, 

227, 228, 280. 
Montan, Castles of Ober and 

Unter, 218. 
Monte Croce Pass, 286, 317, 

318. 
Moos, 318. 
Mori, 251, 254. 
Miihlau, 20. 
Munzerthurm (Hall), 56. 

Nago, 251, 253. 

Napoleon I., 197, 202, 203, 

208, 210, 214, 296, 305. 
Natter, Heinrich, 33, 162-163. 
Naturns, 218. 
Neruda, Norman, 170. 
Neu Spondinig, 220. 
Nicolo, San, 318. 
Nibelungenlied, 218-219. 
Nuvolau, The, 297, 308, 314. 



3 2 5 



Index 



Ortler, 220, 227-233. 

Ospitale, 311. 

Ottoburg (Innsbruck, 11. 

Palle di San Martino, 287, 

289. 
Paneveggio, 289, 291. 
Paris, 5. 

Passeier Valley, 200, 201. 
Passer River, 200. 
Passion Play (Brixlegg), 66. 
Patscher, Kofel, The, 4. 
Pavione, The, 290. 
Payer, Julius von, 227, 228, 

229. 
Payerhiitte, 228-229. 
Pelmo, The, 297. 
Pergine, 258-261. 
Perra, 294-295. 
Pertisan, JJ. 

Peutelstein (Botestagna), 311. 
Pflerschthal, 90. 
Philip I. of Spain, 18, 27. 
Philippine Welser, 39-44. 
Phillmore, J. S., 170. 
Piave River, 250, 317-318. 
Pichler, Joseph, 227, 234. 
Pietra, Castello della, 287-288. 
Pietra Murata, 253. 
Pieve di Cadore, 281, 282, 

302-305, 317. 
Pine, Val, 259. 
Pinzgauer Promenade, 71. 
Plattkofel, The, 140. 
Poli, De, 303. 
Pomagognon, The, 297. 
Prad, 228, 233, 234. 
Predazzo, 282, 291-294. 
Predis, Ambrose de, 22, 26. 
Presanella, The, 175. 
Primiero, 286-289. 
Primolano, 263, 284-286. 
Puflatsch, The, 140. 
Pusterthal, 97-110, 313, 318. 

Raetians, 90, 141, 143, 217, 

218, 221. 
Rattenberg, 66. 



Raynor, G. S., 170. 

Reding, Ital, 46. 

Reschen Scheideck, 221-222. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 49. 

Rhine, 45, 51. 

Richthofen, 280. 

Rienz River, 102, 106. 

Rinn, 61. 

Rio River, 261. 

Ritten, The, 173. 

Rochetta, The, 297. 

Robertson, 305-306. 

Rolle Pass, 289, 291. 

Romance Languages, 141, 

309-310. 
Romans, 90, 97, 160, 173, 190, 

218, 221, 242, 256. 
Rome, 5, 36. 
Rosa, Monte, 230. 
Rosengarten, 158, 167-172. 
Rosetta, The, 287. 
Rosszahne, The, 140. 
Rovereto, 249. 
Rumer Spitze, 5. 
Runkelstein Castle, 174, 177- 

185. 

Saalfelden, 69. 
Saben, 129. 
Salzburg, 3, 69, 71. 
Salzkammergut, vii. 
Sandwirth, 200. 
Sangerkrieg, 146. 
Sanseverino, Roberto da, 240. 
Sarca, Val, 253-255. 
Sass Maor, The (Sasso 

Maggiore), 287. 
Sasso di Stria, The, 308. 
Scaliger, Bartolomeo, 248. 
Scalza, Ludovico, 19. 
Schaubachhiitte, 232. 
Schlanders, 219. 
Schlern, 140, 169. 
Schluderbach, 311-312. 
Schluderns, 220-221. 
Schmittenhohe, 71. 
Schnalserthal, 218. 
Scholastika Inn, 78. 

26 



Index 



Schwarze Rienz River, 312. 
Schwatz, 65. 
Seehof, 78. 
Seespitz, 76-77, 78. 
Seiser Alp, 139, 140, 266. 
Sentlinger, Heinz, 182. 
Series Spitze, The (Wal- 

drast), 4. 
Sesselschreiber, Gilg, 20. 
Sette Comuni, 264 - 2J7, 

284. 
Sextenthal, 109, 318. 
Sigismund, Archduke, 18, 

187, 240. 
Sigmaier, Peter (Tharer 

Wirth), 104-105. 
Sigmundskron, 174. 
Sill Valley, 35- 
Slavs, 97, 98. 

Sorapis, The, 297, 301, 314. 
Spanish Succession, War 

of, 7. 
Speckbacher, Joseph, 61-65, 

198, 204. 
Speech (German), vii.-ix. 
Spinges, 99-100. 
Staben, 218. 
Stabius, 30. 
Stainer, Jacob, 57-61. 
Statthalter, 45. 
Stefano, San, 317, 318. 
Steinhovel, Meister, 188. 
Stelvio Pass, 159, 220, 230, 

233-235- 
Sterzing, 91-93, 201. 
Steub, Dr. Ludwig, 62, 64, 

99- 
Stilfs (Stelvio), 234. 
Strass, 80. 
Strigno, 263. 
Strigel, Bernhard, 22. 
Stubai Valley, 33, 90. 
Styria, 97. 

Sugana, Val, 256-263, 284. 
Sulden, 228, 229, 231-233. 
Swiss Confederation, 19, 22, 

28, 29, 45-47, 269. 
Switzerland, xii, xv., 51. 



Tabarettawande, 228, 231. 

Talfer River, 158, 177. 

Tartsch, 221. 

Tassilo, Duke, 98. 

Tauern, 70, 112. 

Taufererthal, 101. 

Tellina, Val, 235. 

Telvana Castle, 262. 

Terriolis, 190. 

Tesino, Val, 263. 

Teuton survival, 264-277. 

Tezze, 256, 263. 

Tharer Wirth (Peter Sig- 
maier), 104, 105. 

Theodoric, King of the 
Goths, statue, 17. 

Thurn and Taxis, 7. 

Tiers, 169. 

Titian, 282, 302-305. 

Toblach, 106-108, 281, 310- 
313; Lake, 313. 

Tofana, The, 297, 308, 314. 

Tombione, 286. 

Torbole, 251, 254, 255. 

Torre di Averau, 314. 

Trafoi, 228, 229, 230, 234. 

Trapp, Counts of, 220. 

Tra i Sassi Pass, 308. 

Tratzberg, 65. 

Travignolo River, 292. 

Tre Croci Pass, 297, 313-314. 

Tredici Comuni, 264. 

Tre Ponte, 317. 

Tre Sassi Pass, 297. 

Trent, 239-246, 253, 254, 256, 
257; Bishops of, 165, 190, 
242, 256; Council of, 243- 
246. 

Trentino and Dante, 247-255. 

Trostburg Castle, 134, 150. 

Tucker, C. C, 170. 

Tuckett, F. H., 227, 228, 232. 

Tuckettspitze, The, 227. 

Tummelplatz, 35. 

Tyrol, Castle of, 174, 189-191, 
210; Counts of, 36, 37, 65, 
187, 190, 257 ; Crown Land, 
xv., 319. 



3 2 7 



Index 



Ulrich, St., 134, 135. 

Vajolett Valley, 170-172. 
Valentine, St., 221. 
Valparola Joch (Castello 

Pass), 308. 
Valstagna, 284, 285. 
Van Dyke, Dr. Henry, no, 

304. 
Venice, 256, 257, 270, 275- 

276, 281, 296, 302, 305-307, 

315- . 
Venosti, 217. 

Verona, 248, 257, 264, 273. 
Vette di Feltre, The, 290. 
Vezzena, 265. 
Vincentin, Vicenzo, 245. 
Vicenza, 264. 
Viecht Abbey, 77, 78. 
Vienna, 5, 25; Congress 

of, 64, 97; Peace of, 208- 

209. 
Vintsgau, 159, 186, 217-222, 

228, 230, 233. 
Vintage, 175-176. 
Vintler, Nicholas and Franz, 

181 ; Hans, 182. 
Virgil, 241. 
Vischer, Peter, 17. 
Vito, San, 301. 
Vogelweide, Walther von der, 

143-150; statue, 162. 
Vorarlberg, 45. 



Wagram, Battle of, 203. 
Waidbruck, 134, 143, 169. 
W a 1 d r a s t Spitze, The 

(Series), 4. 
Wanga, Lords of, 181. 
Weber, Beda, 218-219. 
Weiherburg Castle, 32. 
Weisse Knott, 234. 
Weisslahn Bad, 169. 
Welschland, 312. 
Welsperg, Lords of, 287. 
Windisch-Matrei, no, in- 

112. 
Winklerthurm, 170. 
Wolf, Carl, 189. 
Wolkenstein, Counts of, 142; 

Oswald von, 150-153. 
Worgl, 66. 

Worms (Bormio), 235. 
Wrede, General, 202. 

Zaniboni, Eugenio, 248, 252. 
Zebru, The, 228. 
Zell am See, 69. 
Zell am Ziller, 83-85. 
Zemmthal, 86. 
Zernale, Bernardo, 22. 
Zillerthal, vii., 66, 70, 80-86. 
Zingerle, Professor I g n a z 

von, 62, 144. 
Zotto, Antonio dal, 303. 
Zurich, 3. 
Zwolfmalgreien, 172-173. 



328 



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